


My Secret Demon Boy

by Nines_Jameson



Series: Demon AU [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Demons, Angst, Denial of Feelings, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magic, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Slow Build, Slow Burn, demon!Bad AU, past trauma, reckless characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26724376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nines_Jameson/pseuds/Nines_Jameson
Summary: During Highschool, Skeppy picked up a fascination with the unusual and paranormal. Other's would mock, and tease him for his obsession, but of course few people ever actually believed in the existence of the supernatural. Skeppy himself during college starts to realize how silly it all is, and begins to lose hope that maybe the vexes and magic he read so much about were never real.Halo is a demon by mistake from when he died, and after decades of never fulfilling his duties, and refusing to behave like a demon. He's chased, and in a race for his life he stumbles into the Overworld and straight into the human Skeppy. He must keep low and hide out keeping his new human friend away from his dark past, and dangerous pursuers.What could go wrong?
Relationships: Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Series: Demon AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017802
Comments: 267
Kudos: 943





	1. Freefall

The demon ran, his feet tearing through the thick dark sludge of sand as it grabbed at his ankles. The soul sand valley, the worst place to be in a chase, and running. He kept running, his lungs and limbs burned, his tail whipped behind him as he grabbed a pillar of basalt and launched himself down and around it, ducking as he crouched over the thin crust of magma stones. His chest heaved as he curled close, his throat and body felt like it was burning hotter than the lava of his home. He kept himself low to the ground, a shriek of a ghast echoed over the red stones, ringing back in his ears, the lava bubbled just beneath his feet and crackled at his dark cloak, somewhere he was almost certain he heard the snorts of the steeds of his pursuers. 

All of these sounds, this ambience, it all faded away as a deep rumbling voice tore through the air. 

“⎓╎リ↸ ⍑╎ᒲ!!” A voice barked out orders. He wasn’t loud, and yet it seemed to be shouted nonetheless.

He tensed as he heard the heavy thumping clopping of hooves approaching him. He held his breath every muscle tensing, as he heard a few more pigs catch up. The same man started commanding orders. 

“⍑ᒷ ᓵᔑリ’ℸ ̣ ʖᒷ ⎓ᔑ∷, ∴ᒷ リᒷᒷ↸ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᓵ⚍ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᒲ 𝙹⎓⎓ ʖᒷ⎓𝙹∷ᒷ ⍑ᒷ ∷ᒷᔑᓵ⍑ᒷᓭ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖ𝙹⚍リ↸ᔑ∷||.” The tyrant's voice was cold and uncaring. So monotone and cool for what he wanted. 

“||ᒷᓭᓭ╎∷!” A younger voice came back, and if Bad could see him, he would’ve seen the young demon salute to his commander. 

“⎓⚍リ↸||, ᑑ ℸ ̣ ᔑꖌᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∴ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷リ ∷𝙹⚍ℸ ̣ ᒷ, ᓵ𝙹ᒲʖ 𝙹⍊ᒷ∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ꖎᔑꖌᒷ, ⍑ᒷ ᒲᔑ|| ⍑ᔑ⍊ᒷ ⊣𝙹ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ᒷリ ᔑ ᓭℸ ̣ ∷╎↸ᒷ∷. ↸∷ᒷᔑᒲ, ||𝙹⚍ ᔑリ↸ ╎ ᔑ∷ᒷ ⊣𝙹╎リ⊣ ᓭℸ ̣ ∷ᔑ╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ リ𝙹∷ℸ ̣ ⍑ ⎓𝙹∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖ𝙹⚍リ↸ᓭ. ꖌリ𝙹∴╎リ⊣ ⍑╎ᒲ ⍑ᒷ’ᓭ ᓭℸ ̣ ╎ꖎꖎ リᒷᔑ∷ʖ||.” 

A voice came back, Dream, it’s voice muffled slightly as if his face was covered, he heard the snort of a pig, as it’s hooves slightly sank into the thick soul sand. 

“∴ᒷ’ꖎꖎ ⎓╎リ↸ ⍑╎ᒲ. . . ∴ᔑ╎ℸ ̣ - “ Bad was crawling, trying to find an opening to keep running, a chase over the basalt would surely hurt, and tear at his hands and knees with every dodge, but it was worth his life. “He’s here.” Dream rumbled lowly. 

The commander was silent, and Bad heard the rustling of fabric, presumably silent orders. In a moment of pure adrenaline and not logic, he took off again. His claws clacked against the heated stone, and burned at the pads of his feet as he ran, his body protested, everything in him wanted to drop. 

If he could just make it over the valley, the boundary was on the other side. So close, and yet so impossibly far.

He heard a shout, and a voice barking over the noise of a shrieking hoglin, and the thundering of hooves behind him. He risked a glance back, to see three of his pursuers mere yards away from him, as well as a loaded crossbow aimed straight for him. 

He wouldn’t make it to the boundary. 

He pelted over, skidding down a sharp slope, and his knees were jarred with the rough landing. Halo would have to open his own portal, he couldn’t, no, he  _ wouldn’t _ make it to the boundary in time with the two of the strongest guards, and one of the High Council on his heels. Not with his life at least. 

“⍑ᒷ ↸∷𝙹!¡!¡ᒷ↸!” 

“∴ᒷꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷリ ᓵ⍑ᔑᓭᒷ ᔑ⎓ℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ ⍑╎ᒲ ↸ᔑᒲᒲ╎ℸ ̣!” 

Bad kept running, everything ached, his hands were bloody from the scramble over the basalt stones, and he had torn one claw on his hand doing so. He closed his eyes and summoned every ounce of magic he had in him, and threw it outwards. He heard a crackle, and violet flooded his vision. He didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t check to see if it even worked. He could hear the hogs coming after him from behind, to his left was more of the valley. Steedless he would be outrun, to his right and directly ahead of him was a churning lava lake. So in a leap of faith he leapt forward. 

He pitched forward, and for a second his heart stopped as heat rushed up to greet him. He screwed his eyes shut, and suddenly he was falling, falling farther, and faster, and before he could even open his eyes he was back on solid ground. He groaned as he lay flat on his stomach and blinked against the sudden bright light. The sun beamed back at him from an open sky. 

_ The sky. He had made it _ .

The portal popped loud enough to send his ears ringing behind him, instantly collapsing into itself. He slowly got onto his hands and knees, his light scrapes and gashes stung with the cool grass beneath him. There was a paved and yet empty path a little ways away. Thin tall trees surrounded him, and somewhere he could hear the soft babble of a brook. He slowly sat up, catching his breath, and taking in his surroundings. Trees lined the path, it seemed like some sort of simple trail and it also looked well maintained. He leaned against a tree, his skin was still burning where he had touched the stones and he internally groaned at himself. 

For the Nether being home of demons, one would think it wouldn’t have salt in it, and yet basalt had managed to crop up. He held his hands against his chest, the wounds weren’t that deep or serious, but the searing burning sensation made him wince with every movement. His head was pounding, and his body seemed to just be grateful to not be in a race for his life. He slowly caught his breath, it seemed easier to do in the clean and  _ living _ air of the overworld. So much cooler, and calmer than the acrid burning atmosphere of the Nether. Slowly he brought himself up and to his feet, which ached, and burned from his pelt over the salt as well. He slowly picked his way away from the path, and towards the brook he had heard. It was just below and glancing around he slowly sank into the water. Instantly the burning nerves calmed as the remnants of salt were washed away, and his shoulders slumped. He closed his eyes as he sighed in relief, but instantly stiffened and opened his eyes when he heard soft footsteps. 

They were on pavement, he could tell, and glancing around he frowned seeing the road led straight under a bridge just behind him. He had been so focused on his own wounds, he had neglected to pay attention to that detail, and now he scorned himself for his carelessness. He felt weak, but thankfully camo was never too harsh on him or his magic. So he shifted to look more ‘normal’. Well human. 

Just in time as well as he rubbed his eyes, with a hood pulled over his now blond hair he saw a boy round the corner. His face was down, focused on a paper pad in his hands, tongue out in focus as he scribbled something on the paper before looking exasperated. He managed to catch the end of his muttered words. 

“ - making escape rooms is hard.” He mumbled with an annoyed sounding groan. 

The boy was in an electric blue hoodie, dark hair falling into his eyes as he walked, tanned skin, and dark eyes. For a brief moment, Bad froze panicking as he looked over, half expecting to hear the tearing of the fabric of magic, and for his pursuers to leap forth and take him. But instead he was greeted to the sight of a human, and it gave him pause, as he pulled his knees to his chest, as he sat on the pebble and dirt covered bank. He closed his eyes, willing their pale color to fade away, and they gave way to emerald irises. Framed with his brown glasses. Part of him wanted to speak with the boy, but at the same time, if he actually was approached did he still remember English well enough? It had been  _ years _ since he last needed to speak it. 

The human walked approaching the now disguised demon, and stopped upon noticing Bad, he seemed surprised, “Oh! Hello, I uh - I didn’t realize other people hung out in these woods, are you new?” 

Bad paused, having to think over his words to make sure his English was right, he spoke slowly, “H. . hey, I.” He frowned slightly, “Yeah you could say that I am.” 

The boy cocked his head slightly, “Where are you from? You’ve got an interesting accent.” 

He must’ve picked it up after living in the Nether for so long, it certainly was no longer an American accent, well an  _ old _ American accent, since even if it hadn’t changed it certainly would not be the same as the modern dialect. He never had really noticed it, and still didn’t, but clearly the human had. 

“Thank. . you.” He said sheepishly, adjusting his glasses. If the High’s knew he was speaking with a human, if they weren’t already furious with him for his actions, then they certainly would be happy to take him out for this. “I’m from. . .from new. . .new seasand.” 

For being a demon, one would think he would be better at lying.

“New Seasand?” He put his hands in his pockets, “Where’s that?” 

Bad swallowed, “N-northern Canada.” He wished humans weren’t so curious, or maybe he just wished he wasn’t such a terrible liar for moments like these. 

“Uh. . well ok. Hey are you alright dude?” The tanned human raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Now.” He nodded keeping his gaze low. 

“Now?” 

_ Oh muffins _

He nodded, brushing some hair from his face, "Just. . .I was freaking out over something. I'm alright now though." The more he spoke the easier he remembered English, he felt a little proud of himself for it, “I'm. . . I'm BadBoyHalo. What's your name?"

He cringed slightly realizing he had used his given Demon name over his human one from so long ago, but if the boy noticed, or cared he didn’t say anything. He had gotten so used to the name it was second nature to him, even though he much preferred his human name. But it was too late now. 

"Uh I’m Skeppy." He slowly came a little closer as if hesitant to upset the disguised demon, "You sure you're okay? Did you get jumpscared by a creeper or something?"

He sounded so concerned, it made Bad feel a little guilty as he dragged himself back to his feet. He gave a small smile, he had little fangs with it, and he saw curiosity flick over the human’s expression. If he wasn’t already curious enough.

"Actually yeah, just spooked me." He slightly tensed, still half expecting to be attacked or hit. But at the same time since Skeppy was giving him an easy excuse it also helped his pretty (frankly) terrible lie.

"I get that, those guys suck, wish they burned in the daylight like zombies and skeletons." He said with a quiet chuckle, "So, you're not hurt at all?"

He shook his head, running a hand in his hair, making sure his little horns weren't visible any longer, "Yeah I'm ok. Uh. . Skeppy right? Are you from around here?" Bad asked hopefully.

Skeppy raised an eyebrow again, “Yeah I am, are you lost or something?” 

"You.. . Could say that. I'm new to this. . Server." He gave a sheepish smile again as he pulled down his hood revealing his face a bit better. His eyes were now a bright green like the lush grass around him. He had almost said Overworld, but caught himself in the last minute. "Could you show me around?"

He hoped his awful lies weren’t too obvious, since the human already seeed suspicious of him. Although according to his track record, things didn’t seem to be in his favor.

"Uh sure." He smiled, already gesturing for Bad to follow. "It's not too big of a city to get to know."

He sighed in relief, hopefully if it was big enough, he could easily blend in, and as he stepped away from the tree, he was also grateful he was behind Skeppy. Exhaustion, and lack of practice in camo meant he still had small claws, and a tail. Which he frantically hid with his magic, although no magic could hide the small burns that were fading on his hands. He frowned a bit, but at least the scrapes and only semi-salt inflicted wounds seemed to be healing. Even if slower than normal.

"I've lived in a secluded area, so a city is a nice change. Are there a lot of h. .people here?" He caught himself before saying ‘humans’

Skeppy glanced back at him, "Yeah, well, it's the second biggest city in the server, you'll fit in just right, people come in and out all the time." He smiled reassuringly

"That's awesome!"  _ it's the perfect hiding place _ ! He chirped happily, he just took in the surroundings as they walked. Marveling at the buildings and gardens.

He paused at one garden bed, kneeling down as he gingerly touched a pink flower, it was a little wilty, he looked a little sad at it before standing up. As the two continued if Skeppy were to look back it almost seemed as if the flower had magically perked up a little. 

"So what do you like to do Skeppy?" He asked, tilting his head at the other.

"Me?" Skeppy shrugged as they walked along, "I'm in college and all, but a thing I do is make escape rooms and riddle mazes and stuff, y'know, for fun? Like every month I change stuff around and come up with new things and people pay a pretty penny to try my stuff out."

He wasn’t sure what ‘ _ pretty penny _ ’ meant, but he assumed it may be weirder if he asked what it meant over just ignoring it and just trying to figure it out himself. Plus Skeppy seemed pretty proud of himself talking about it, so he let it go. 

He looked up, "Escape rooms?" He listened, there was a lot he must’ve missed in the years since he was last on the surface. "What're you studying in college?"

"Architecture." He chuckled softly, "And escape rooms are just a hobby thing of mine, it's like a room you're trapped in and you have to escape, solving puzzles and stuff y’know?" Skeppy looked down to Bad. "Another kinda side hobby is studying monsters, the paranormal, it's neat, I wouldn't do ghost hunting and stuff yet, but I'm thinking about it. But I don’t really tell people about it since, well like nobody would take me seriously."

"Yeah I know.”  _ He didn’t have a clue actually, _ Skeppy’s next words made him tense though, “Monsters?"  _ Would Skeppy think of him as a monster if he knew? _ "Like. . .d. .demons and such?"

“Yeah, ghosts, demons, vexes, all sorts.” He beamed, seeming happy that Bad wasn’t just mocking him for his interests. “Although I love reading about things like Vampires, and oh! The really obscure things too like old myths.”

He looked away suddenly becoming a bit nervous, "What. . .what do you think of them?" He asked softly. Perhaps a bit fearfully.

"Well... I haven't come across any just yet." Skeppy admitted sheepishly with a small laugh. “But I would think they’re probably pretty cool, maybe interesting? I won’t know since I haven’t met one.” 

He was a terrible liar, especially for a demon, and Skeppy just seemed so  _ nice _ he didn't even attempt to think twice about his next words, "Yes you have."

"What?" The young man blinked as he looked over to Bad suddenly stopping in his tracks.

He instantly clapped a hand over his mouth, “I’ve done it now,” he mumbled to himself. 

"What do you mean?" Skeppy said as he tilted his head, looking a bit confused, and perhaps worried, "Tell me."

He stopped walking as he wrung his hands, "Can you keep a secret?" He asked nervously, looking anywhere except for the human at his side. 

"... Sure?" He said, clearly confused.

"J-just. . .please don't freak out." He took in a deep breath, summoning all the courage he had left in him, "I'm a demon."

Skeppy took one look at Bad, and then burst out laughing. "Man... you really had me going there!" He said as he held his abdomen, still giggling and pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "Demons are like big and scary, you're not big and scary at all!"

Bad wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. He huffed, "Wh-what? We aren't all like that." He protested flustered, "I'm being serious, Skeppy!"

Skeppy snorted shaking his head, “Yeah sure you are ~”

His cheeks were now a bright red, as he tried to think of a way to prove it. He didn't want to drop his human looks in public, that was too risky, especially if  _ he _ knew where Bad had gone to, "Ask me something only a demon would know!" His eyes lit up for a minute as he came up with the idea.

"Well... I wouldn't know uh... what's my darkest secret?" He asked, shrugging with a cheeky smile.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head with a grin, "I'm not a mind reader Skep." He paused thinking. He could try to sense any hint of the shadow secrets humans often carried. He giggled softly as he sensed the lingering memory shadow, "You ate a booger in second grade, and a cute boy saw you. . . He was your crush." 

He blushed brightly and mumbled, his cheeky grin fading but not vanishing, "And you said you weren't a mind reader."

He was giggling quietly, "It's. . .more complicated than that. I can only sense. . . .we call them shadows. They're secrets we hate or are embarrassed by." He paused looking up at Skeppy as he tried to explain it, " _ Now _ do you believe me?"

"... Sure." Skeppy muttered, still clearly embarrassed. "Don't tell anyone. . about that."

Bad nodded, "Lips are sealed I promise. . I . . I'm sorry I guess I wasn't what you were hoping for."

Skeppy’s eyes suddenly lit up and he grabbed Bad’s wrist, "You're coming home with me. I have many questions.”

Skeppy was already dragging him a direction much to his confusion, which was probably the direction to his apartment. Bad didn’t resist, but he wasn’t exactly keeping pace and going with him either. 

His eyes widened, "Wait what?" He was more confused than protesting as he followed the human towards his home.

"You're a demon and I have questions." He said seriously as he walked through the streets, as if it was an obvious answer.

He paused,  _ what if he got caught? He was already exiled and chased out _ , but he followed nonetheless. Perhaps he was just as reckless, or maybe he was just as curious about humans and the world now all these years later. Either way the two walked back together, well more like Bad was dragged back willingly to Skeppy’s apartment. Eventually he was pushed into a small shabby apartment and onto a couch. Skeppy closed the curtains, locked the doors and sat opposite to Bad, grabbing a notebook and pencil. 

"How come you don't look or act like a demon?" He asked quickly, "What other kind of powers do you have? Can you shapeshift or something? And oh want something to eat or drink?"

He sat down on the couch, slightly nervous as Skeppy locked and closed windows and doors. His mind dragging out old memories he had hoped to forget. He was chewing his lip with the slew of questions being fired at him. He finally found his voice and slowly stammered.

"I - I do. . .look like others. Just not right now. I. . .what am I supposed to act like?" He looked up at Skeppy confused, "And. .. I don't have much magic. No I don’t. . .I don’t need to eat right now."

"... Can you show me what you really look like?" He asked, sounding like a curious kid on Christmas, before noticing Bad’s nervousness, "Oh... uh, I locked stuff up because well we don't want anyone to see you in case the police are called, you're safe, I'll keep my lips sealed. I promise."

_ Safe,  _ that was something he hadn’t felt in a very long time, just hearing it felt a little strange. He glanced a little nervously around as he fiddled with his dark cloak, ". . . Just promise you won't scream, or freak out?"

"Promise." Skeppy nodded eagerly.

He nodded and shifted on the couch. His skin became a rich blue black color, speckles of purple dotted his cheeks and arms, his hair was a sooty gray. A pair of small horns sprouted from his head a bit rounded at their ends, and his tail was curled around him, his ears were slightly pointed now, and when he looked up at Skeppy not only was he now several inches taller than before, but his eyes were a milky white. His tiny sharpened canines had become proper fangs that slightly were visible beneath his top lip. His tail flicked nervously and he looked away quickly as if he had done something wrong. It took a few moments for the human boy to speak as he inspected Bad.

“Creepy,” He breathed observing the demon, “. . . But cute.”

His face flushed a bit, "I'm not cute!" He huffed tail flicking.

One would usually expect his voice to match his appearance, or for it to at least change with his more natural form. But it didn't. He pushed up his red rimmed glasses blushing brightly as his tail curled around himself. The tip of it was slightly pointed and flat, like one would imagine a cartoon demon may have. 

"I never thought a demon needed glasses either." Skeppy chuckled with a tiny smile pulling at his face. 

Bad paused and pulled the glasses off, which vanished as soon as he set them down beside him, “I don’t in this form.” He admitted quietly. “But, you. . you aren’t scared of me?”

Skeppy shook his head, now grinning, “No, you're cute, like a chibi demon."

Bad tilted his head as he whined softly, both flustered and confused, “What the muffin even is a cheebee?”

"A cutified being, like you." Skeppy began petting Bad's head, only able to actually reach it because Bad was sitting.

His whole face was a bright blue, which was his own form of blushing like this as he covered his face, "I'm not cute!" He protested meekly.

Skeppy gasped. "You blush blue!"

"Wh . .what?" 

The Nether had little in terms of vanity ironically, and he hadn't actually seen himself blush for a very long time and he had honestly forgotten. He barely remembered what his human form looked like. Let alone his natural form, so in his mind he had no idea, he had never really wanted to know what he looked like after he had died and changed to this.

"N-no I don't!"

"You're just adorable." Skeppy teased with a grin.

Then he began petting around Bad's horns. His touch was light and gentle, as if being careful not to hurt Bad, which was ironic considering the power difference between the two. A human being gentle with a demon, who would’ve thought of that in a million years anyways? The soft contact made him calm though, and he had to suppress a purr that threatened to rise in his chest. He flushed, his ears becoming blue as well, but he didn't stop Skeppy from petting him. After a moment a soft purr escaped him despite his efforts, which he tried to hide and covered his mouth hoping Skeppy hadn’t heard him.

"... Are all demons like you?" Skeppy asked softly yet curiously.

He paused, and shook his head, "No. . .not at all." A small shudder took him as he looked down and away. His pale eyes held sadness, his body still ached with soreness from his escape.

“... Did you have to leave your family?"

He looked up blinking before shaking his head, a little bit of a bitter tone hinting in his voice, “My. . .family? No they weren't family."

Skeppy tilted his head, and prodded, “What happened? What happened to make you sad?” 

".. .Oh." he was quiet for a moment trying to find the words, "I. . .I don't think I'm supposed to be a demon. T. . They. .They tried to make me kill someone, and I couldn't do it." Tears pooled in his eyes as he thought back to the young kid thrown at his feet, "I couldn't hurt him, I saw the fear and I couldn't do it."

“that means, you're a good demon." Skeppy smiled softly, and comfortingly, "A good demon doesn't hurt others and give into peer pressure."

Bad snorted softly, “I’m a  _ demon _ Skeppy. Demon’s aren’t good usually.” 

“So? There’s nothing wrong with being different.”

"So. . .there is something wrong with me! I'm already a freak and I can't even fit in with the other monsters. You don't get it. . .it's alright.” He sighed standing. 

By standing on his clawed feet, it brought him up to his more usual height, which was nearly a foot above the human Skeppy. Completely changing their previous height dynamic between them. He looked over Skeppy, it was hard to tell exactly what he was looking at due to his pure white eyes, which actually dimly glowed in the dull lighting of the apartment, and he rubbed his face, as if it could rub away his feelings.

“Well then explain it to me.” Skeppy retorted looking now up at the demon. 

"I'm. . .I'm not just a different thing Skep. . .I. .I'm all wrong. I  _ shouldn't _ be nice, but I want to be. I  _ shouldn't _ remember being human, but I do, I  _ should _ want to hurt people but I just can't and I want to be normal, but I can't be normal. Even if I'm a little different, I just. .. if the Highs knew I was here, knew I was talking with a human, I'd be put down on the spot. and. . .and humans fear me."

“I’m not afraid of you.” Skeppy coaxed gently. 

He softened a bit, ". . . Yeah, but. . Not a lot of people are this calm, and usually if they aren't . . . it's because they want something." You. . .you don't want a deal do you?" He became a little more resigned as he spoke. 

He was studying Skeppy, trying to find any hint of a lie in the human, trying to sense underhanded plots, or schemes. But there wasn’t anything, Skeppy just seemed genuinely interested in getting to know him. He wasn’t sure what bothered him more, how unusual it was for someone to actually  _ want _ to know him, or to not be doing a deal with a human. Skeppy was being honest. 

"What? No!" Skeppy blinked as he looked up to Bad, sounding bewildered, "I just want to learn about you... did... you say you were once human?"

He nodded, "Yeah a little while ago now?" He thought for a minute, "What year is it like 1815? 1817?"

Bad tried to remember the last year he had been in the overworld, 1815 sounds about right, and surely it hadn’t been that long since he was last here. Skeppy cocked his head and looked at him like ‘are you serious?’ and Bad just looked expectantly back at him. 

"Uh... 2020." Skeppy replied. "Wow... you're an old demon."

Bad’s eyes widened as he looked shocked, “Holy muffins! 2020? Wow. . .it was a long time ago”

He became a bit flustered at being called old, and settled back onto the couch now. Tucking his tail close, and Skeppy took the opportunity to run his fingers through Bad’s hair again. Speaking kindly and yet teasingly. 

“You look good for your age.”

His face flushed again, and he couldn’t help but smile a bit, holding his tail in his little clawed hands. They were quiet for a few moments. Mumbling a quiet thanks to the human and he relaxed. 

“Skeppy?” 

The boy looked up from the strange glowing object in his hands he had engrossed himself in a few moments ago, and tilted his head with a soft hum. 

“You can’t tell anyone about me.” He said seriously. 

Skeppy’s face looked conflicted, mixing between disappointment, and then shifting to understanding and a comforting smile as he nodded, “Okay.” 

Skeppy looked back down at his device and laughed softly as he saw Bad trying to peek at it. 

“Here lemme show you something called a phone.” 

  
  



	2. Apartments

Skeppys was sitting on his couch, as he was starting to at least  _ try _ and explain the modern world to the demon sitting next to him. Perhaps it was his adrenaline, and excitement of actually finding something supernatural. Things that really were on the bizarre and unusual, things that defied human explanation. Or perhaps it was the relief that he hadn’t simply been a gullible idiot for years throughout high school, adamantly insisting that things like spirits and magic,  _ real _ magic existed. Sure the zombies and skeletons that burned with the sun rise, and creepers were bizarre, but they were no weirder than the pigs in farms, or the chickens that sometimes were found roaming the streets. It was simply just another part of life. 

Regardless of the reasoning, it hadn’t quite clicked just how stupid and dangerous his choices were at the moment. He had just brought a demon into his own home, and then locked any way in or out. He was trying to explain the internet to the demon. 

“What is wee fee?” He asked, pointing to a small symbol on his phone. 

Skeppy laughed, and shook his head, “It’s pronounced  _ wi-fi _ .” 

The demon cocked his head looking up at Skeppy raising an eyebrow, his eyes were as white as his phone’s screen, and glowed like it too. The human paused and in the moment of silence, his brain seemed to finally click into rationality mode, and it crossed his mind just how risky and dangerous this was. Nobody knew where he was, he had no way out if Bad tried to attack him, and most of all, unless he was loud enough nobody would even know what happened until someone came to check on him or something. Bad seemed to notice his human buddy tense and a look of concern crossed his face. 

“Did I say something wrong?” He asked softly tilting his head. 

Skeppy shook his head, “No - um. . .just you gotta realize how crazy this all is y’know?” 

The demon shrugged, “I guess so yeah?” He seemed to pause and purse his lips, “I can leave if you want?” 

“No no, I. ..I don’t think you want to hurt me, right?” 

Bad seemed to smile, his little fangs shining in his smile, “Right, I don’t want to hurt anyone.” 

Skeppy nodded quietly, and began scrolling through his phone. Suddenly it started ringing, and a surprised yelp sounded beside him. He turned to look to see the demon ducking behind the arm of the couch,  _ was he scared of his phone ringing? _ Bad peaked over it curious, and spooked looking like a tense kitten. He smiled as he answered the phone. 

“Heyyy” He stood up as he answered the phone casually. 

“Skeppy! Where the hell are you?!” Finn sounded worried on the other side of the line. 

Today he was supposed to meet with his friends for lunch. . . .twenty two minutes ago. He slapped himself mentally for missing the time for the diner meet up once again. So the boy came up with some lame excuse that was the first thing that popped in his mind. 

“Sorry dude I’ve just not felt great today, I fell asleep on the couch.” He gave an attempted laugh as he paced the living room. 

Bad had carefully crawled back onto the couch cushion, and cocked his head, “Is that human inside the phone?!” He sounded bewildered, and was loud. 

Skeppy put a finger to his lips indicating to shush, as Finn sighed through the speaker, “Look Skeppy, if you just don’t want to hang out with us, then tell me. I’d rather take that than beating around the bush with you like this.” 

Skeppy paled, he had been so busy the last few weeks, he had blown off their meetup several times over the last month. This was probably the fourth or fifth time. It hadn’t ever been intentional, he got sick, then he was busy with school work and tests, then he was out visiting his family. Then Finn had cancelled the last one and rescheduled for today. He groaned and quickly tried to reply and fix this. 

“No no, it’s not that. I do wanna hang out with you guys, I really do. Just stuff came up.” He sighed running a hand through his hair.

Halo was looking at him seeming concerned, his tail tip twitching every now and again as he studied Skeppy with the blank eyes. They were honestly the only actually creepy thing about the little demon. 

“No Skeppy, I’m done with the excuses, it’s always another time.” Finn sounded hurt and paused before continuing, “I’m tired of the constant bullshit excuses, I know you’re lying, I’m not an idiot Skep. Look just forget it ok? Because clearly whatever the hell you’re lying about or for is more important than us.” 

Skeppy paused, tears threatening to spill, he couldn’t lose his friends. He panicked as he grabbed his hair in his hands, “Finn! Please no, look I . . I can explain ok? I found something. Just come to my place and I’ll explain.” 

Finn paused, and seemed to be holding the speaker away since he sounded far away, and was talking to someone else. Probably Spifey, who was also supposed to be a part of their get together. Finally he spoke again, sounding just as upset, “Skeppy. . .you know what fine. We’ll come by, if you’re being serious. If this is another joke so help me.” 

Skeppy shook his head even though his friend couldn’t see him, “No jokes this time Finn. Please.” 

“We’ll be there in ten ok?” 

“Ok.” The dial tone sounded as Finn hung up. 

Skeppy paced his living room panicking, “fuck. . .” 

Bad huffed, “Skeppy language!” 

He looked a little startled, not expecting the demon to speak. Let alone a  _ demon _ to scorn him on his language choices, or lack thereof. He swallowed thickly as he turned to face the other boy, who looked back up curious and expectantly. 

“Bad I need you to show my friends you’re a demon.” He had made a mess of his hair in his worry, and started walking back and forth again. 

Bad sounded hurt, and he seemed to wither, shrinking away from Skeppy, his voice soft, “I. . .but. . .You promised to keep this a secret.” 

Skeppy nodded sitting down harshly on the couch, “I know I know. I’m really sorry. But I. . .I’m going to lose my friends, I . . I can’t lose them, please Bad.” 

The demon paused thinking over it, before huffing a resigned sigh. He hesitantly put a hand on the human’s shoulder, a soft and warm smile on his face as he shifted to his human form. Glasses magically back in place as he tried to comfort his human buddy. 

“I’ll do it.” 

Relief swept over Skeppy, giving his lungs air he hadn’t realized he needed. He hugged the demon tightly, “I’ll owe you. . . seriously.” 

Bad tensed beneath him, before pulling away and shaking his head, “No Skeppy. . .no owing me anything. If if you did then that would be a deal. I’m not going to make a deal. If. . .if they really mean that much to you, then I’m. . .” he paused, “I’m alright doing it.” 

“Are. . are you sure?” Skeppy looked at his demon friend. 

Bad nodded in reply taking a deep breath, and closing his eyes before the green irises returned to the previously milky white eyes. He pulled Skeppy into another hug, and much to his surprise, both from the hug, and that Halo was surprisingly warm to the touch. It was like a warm blanket being laid around him and he sighed softly relaxing slightly. Halo asked softly. 

“Are you okay?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I’m just a terrible friend.” 

Bad looked at him with a pity look, and ran a hand gently through Skeppy’s hair, which made him a bit embarrassed, but at the same time, he didn’t want to pull away. 

“I’m sure you’re a great friend, you’ve just made some mistakes, and that means you’re just human, that’s ok.” Halo said kindly.

“Still -”

Halo chuckled as he breathed deeply hugging Skeppy before pulling away, and laughing softly. 

“What’s funny Bad?” 

Bad tilted his head, “You. .you smell nice, you smell like - “ 

He was cut off as the doorbell rang, it’s chime cutting through the peaceful air like a knife. A knock followed it quickly as well as Bad’s startled yip as he jumped from the sound.  _ Had he really never heard a doorbell? _ Skeppy thought to himself as he stood up and patted Halo’s shoulder, an attempt to tell him it was okay before he went and answered the door. 

Finn was speaking from the other side, “Skeppy you home?” 

Skeppy opened the door and smiled at his friends, “Finn, Spifey! Come in come in,” He side-stepped to let his friends in, who all looked around the now darkened and closed off apartment. 

“What the hell? What are you a vampire now?” Finn joked lightly, though the atmosphere between them was still a bit tense.

Skeppy shook his head, “No no it’s for a reason.” He grinned and gestured to Halo who was shyly sitting on the couch in his human form. “I met someone special today!”

Finn frowned and shook his head, “Skeppy, if you are seriously telling me you were ditching us for a fucking  _ boyfriend _ I’m done.” 

“I’m. . we aren’t. . .It's. . .he’s just my friend, and language.” Bad mumbled, shaking his head and Skeppy nodded. 

Finn shook his head, “Whatever, we’re done here Spifey, Skeppy I thought you were above that.”

Skeppy reached out and gingerly grabbed his friend’s arm before he could leave, “Please! Let me explain, but just. . .don’t freak out, and you can’t tell a soul okay?”

He knew he sounded desperate, but he didn’t care. Finn and Spifey were such close friends, he couldn’t afford to lose them. College was tough enough when you barely scraped by with money and socially. Finn paused, seeming to study the tanned human for a long time, probably debating over how truthful Skeppy sounded. He turned to BBH and gestured lightly to him with a sweet and kind smile. 

“Show them Halo.” He said softly, and the demon looked at him for a moment. 

Bad hesitated a moment before shifting. A black magic seemed to hover around his head and hands for a moment as he shifted to his demon form. With his hood up his dark face completely vanished, with just two white eyes glowing, although his features and small horns were still visible, just less so. Finn stepped back putting a hand on his mouth, putting a hand on Spifey. 

“Holy shit!” Finn exclaimed before looking at Spifey. “What is that?!” 

Bad flinched and looked away shyly, “Language.” He huffed, his fangs more prominent now. 

"A demon." Skeppy said before gently petting Bad once more. "He's really nice, not like the others, kind, and gentle..." He leaned down and whispered to Bad. "Thank you."

Spifey and Finn looked between each other in baffled amazement. While they were both long time friends who had joked with Skeppy and his supernatural obsession, but neither had ever been much of a believer in it. They would listen, and some stories they had believed but mostly not. Bad nodded slightly giving a tiny smile and had his tail curled close to himself. 

“I thought. . I thought those were just stories!” Finn stepped forward, curiosity overtaking his fear it seemed. 

Skeppy remained tense as Bad spoke, worried for both his friends, and the demon’s safety, Bad spoke sheepishly, “We. .No we are real, we just don’t come to the Overworld very often.”

“Holy shit! Skeppy I can’t believe you summoned a demon!” He turned to the tanned human eyes wide with shock. 

“Ahh! Language!” Bad protested as Finn swore, which got both of his friend’s to raise an eyebrow. 

"I didn't summon him." Skeppy retorted. "And keep quiet! We don't need the whole complex to know okay? Look, I wanna help Bad, he's in trouble and before you called I was gonna offer him a place to crash here." 

“Sorry sorry.” Finn put his hands up, “But still you’ve gotta realize just how baffling this all is right?” He listened to Skeppy and frowned, “Skeppy can we talk. . .privately?” 

He glanced over at the demon, who was fiddling with his cloak and keeping his eyes on the floor from the others, holding his own tail, and running a thumb back and forth over it. Skeppy was a bit confused by the request, but saw no harm in it. Spifey seemed more relaxed compared to Finn at the moment. 

“Okay?” Skeppy tilted his head as Finn pulled him into the single bedroom of the apartment before turning to comfort the demon, “Just wait here Halo okay? I’ll be right back.” 

Finn instantly frowned once they were behind a closed door, "Dude what the hell are you thinking? That's a demon!  _ A demon _ Skeppy. That thing is dangerous, and if it's in trouble with who knows what.. . You're putting  _ yourself _ at risk!"

"He could've killed me or possessed me, he's good." Skeppy said with a nonchalant shrug. "Plus, he even said that the other demons outcast him, he'd be killed for even talking to me, but he can't go back. He has no other choice."

"And how do you know he's not tricking you? Manipulating you so he has a safe place here in the Overworld and just takes you then?" Finn retorted, "It is still a demon. It isn't good, that thing is a demon for a reason.”

"He wouldn't reveal himself to you then." He said seriously. "He'd stop me from telling you all this."

"Mind games dude." Finn shook his head, "Just. . .watch your back around it okay?" His voice was more gentle now.

Skeppy sighed, but nodded reluctantly, “ _ It’s _ not an it, he’s a him.” As ironic as it sounds, Bad is good.”

He gave a tiny smile, "Just. . .be careful ok?"

“I will...”

He patted Skeppy on the shoulder before walking with him back out where Bad was being shown Spifey's phone. He had all the amazement of a child on christmas morning as he looked at the glowing screen. The demon was back in his human form too, and Skeppy leaned on the back of the couch behind the two of them.

“What are you letting him watch?” Skeppy chuckled. 

Bad perked up, a smile on his face, “He’s showing me more about fones!” 

Spifey laughed beside the now disguised demon, “It’s  _ phone _ with a ph.”

Spifey tilted his phone a little so Skeppy could see it too, but once it was finished he turned off the screen and set the device on his lap. Bad made a quiet noise of disappointment but didn't say anything. Spifey glanced at Finn, before looking back at Skeppy expectantly. 

“So what are we going to do now?” 

"Should we bring Bad out with us for dinner?" Skeppy asked.

Finn frowned at the idea, "Skeppy I really don't think -" he was cut off by Spifey grinning.

"Yes! Oh Halo I know the best place in town for pizza."

Halo cocked his head, and once again looked confused as he looked at Skeppy for an answer. How long had it been since he was on the surface? Did he really not know what pizza was?

"... Pizza is a type of food, it's nice." Skeppy said before looking at Finn.

Finn shook his head standing his ground, "We aren't going out with a demon Skep. I've put up with a lot of your reckless behavior but this crosses the line. Even for us.” 

Bad looked away, and seemed to wither underneath the harsh tone of the human’s friend. Bad cleared his throat quietly, "I can just. . .stay here if you guys want."

Finn looked to Skeppy and asked softly, “Where’s your salt.” 

Skeppy glared at his friend, “You are not going to salt him.” He said coldly before looking more softly at Halo, “Do you want to come with us?” 

Bad shook his head, “N. . no it’s fine.” 

Finn rolled his eyes and sighed, “Not  _ it _ Skeppy. I’m not that cruel, I meant the doorways and exits, so he can’t leave.”

Bad was sitting on the couch pulling at the hems of his sleeves, and shook his head silently. Although Skeppy had a feeling that the demon did want to join them, Finn had probably spooked him enough to have him say no. He felt pity for the demon, which was something he never thought he would feel.

"... I don't think you should trap him Finn." Skeppy sighed.

"Skeppy please for five fucking minutes think about this from an outside perspective!" Finn snapped annoyed now, and Bad mumbled a quiet  _ language _ . “You've freely let a demon into your house, who knows what it can do, and it shouldn't be able to just wander freely!"

"Bad, will you be okay with that?" He asked the demon gently.

The boy seemed to pause for a long moment, and Skeppy felt guilty for persuading the demon into this situation. He had probably already had a rough time before meeting Skeppy, and now he was simply making it worse. But eventually the disguised demon spoke. His voice soft and delicate as if he was on the verge of crying. But offered what looked like a forced smile. 

"It's fine."

Skeppy knew it wasn’t fine, but he also knew Finn wouldn’t budge on this, and as he saw the boy going to the kitchen and finding salt. It sealed their choices unfortunately, and Skeppy didn’t want to strain their relationship more. 

"Hey Halo we'll bring you back some pizza ok? We’ll be back before you know it.” He assured the demon as the three left, and Halo just nodded again. 

So off the three humans went to dinner together, leaving the demon trapped within Skeppy’s apartment. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't actually expect people to like this story lol, anyways I'm glad y'all are enjoying it! Also TYSM for 300+ reads POG CHAMP
> 
> (Also anyone who watched todays stream with Fundy and Iskall, poor Iskall sounded so done. Please Fundy free the man)


	3. First Aid

Bad figured originally he could entertain himself while the three humans were out. I mean how hard could it be when literally everything in the apartment was new and foreign to him. But. . .he was wrong, things quickly became boring. Repeatedly clicking buttons to make the weird box light up became frustrating when he didn’t understand all the moving images on it, it was too complicated and confusing. So after about five, maybe ten minutes he gave up, and turned it off with a sigh. He flopped down on the couch as he set the remote down on a small table, and groaned softly in boredom, glancing at the clock. Surely _surely_ it had been an hour already right? He sat up, pale eyes focusing on the little numbers. . .it had barely been thirty minutes. Maybe there would be something else entertaining in the small building that Skeppy called home that he could find. 

So he picked and rummaged through the drawers, cupboards, and the strange device like an oven that hovered and seemed to be in the wall above it in the kitchen. He tried opening it, and a light lit up inside it. But there was no fire, he tried opening it and closing it a few times, and every time the door was opened the light magically came on his eyes widened and, he grinned playing with that a few more times, the same even happened when he opened the door to the oven too! Out of curiosity he tried the fridge, and inevitably tried to see the light go off on that too as the door opened and closed. The kitchen was safely a disaster by this point, with forks, plastic knives, and a few dishes thrown about carelessly and littering the counters. He sat in the middle of the minor mess he had made as boredom was slowly creeping back in and his tail flicked idly behind him on the tiles. There was a door and beyond it he could see what appeared to be a bedroom. This piqued his interest.

He got to his feet and made his way towards the ajar doorway. He reached to push it open, only to find a wall that made his skin feel like it was on fire with needles. He reeled back holding his palm which, for now, was undamaged but it had a sting to the skin. He frowned looking around for the barrier that kept him from touching the door. 

** Salt **

There was a thick line of salt in the doorway, which created an impassable barrier between him and the bedroom. A part of him faltered and felt hurt, but he shook it away with a shake of his head. Skeppy had every right to put that in place, Skeppy was a human, and Bad was decidedly not. So the salt made perfect sense especially if that room meant a lot to the boy.

He reluctantly sighed and moved away from the door. Even if he was curious, he was already weakened from his escape and the portal, and there was no way he was strong enough to just brute force his way over the line. So for the time being the room would keep its secrets.

It was silly in concept, salt and demons. A simple little chemical, that was found in just about every modern household, could keep one of the most powerful of the supernatural at bay. Not only that but potentially could severely wound said demons. Put a little of the substance somewhere in a solid line, and like magic, whatever was on the other side of the salt from the demon was safe. Bad had never thought much about it if he was being honest, not until now at least. The more he thought about it, the more his mind wandered back to the Nether, so he forced himself to think about something else, dismissing it from his mind. 

He made his way back to the couch and looked around the apartment once again. This time looking for where the humans had put barriers down, usually to keep him and others like him out. Except now it was to keep him in. 

Every window he could see had salt along its base and around a little switch at the top, probably some form of a modern lock. As well as one at the front door, to Skeppy’s bedroom, and finally, around a door that he wasn’t sure where it led. Although, judging by the voices carrying over from the other side, perhaps there was another apartment on the other side? He wasn’t sure, and nor did he have a way to figure it out either. 

It had been almost two hours now since Skeppy had left with his other human friends, and he was getting incredibly bored, and incredibly curious. There was only so many times one could open and close a door with a magic light before that too even became boring. He had since picked up the mess he had made of the silverware and a few plastic dishes, and now once again his mind wandered to the bedroom that was just out of reach. He slowly stood up from his seat on the couch and stood in front of the doorway. It was connected to the living room, and the door hung slightly open, although even if it was fully open he wouldn't be able to actually go in. Not without somehow moving the salt at least.

Every logical person, or demon for that matter would probably think hey this hurts, I should leave it alone. But not Bad, he wasn't logical when he wanted to know something, and right now he was incredibly bored out of his mind, and incredibly curious. So, he sucked in a breath, tensing and tried to shove the thick line of salt. Well, tried to break it at least, or move it so he could cross. 

His hands instantly flared with a white hot pain as soon as his skin came in contact with the chemical, and he yelped recoiling from it.

"ᒲ𝙹ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ∷ 𝙹⎓ ᒲ⚍⎓⎓╎リᓭ!" He cried out as he instinctively brought his hands closer to himself, his native language slipping over English in the moment.

Angry red wounds were burned along his fingertips, and palms, scorching the skin in a messy yet thick line. The heat and pain covered his hands and he held his paws protectively against himself whimpering. He had always had an especially bad reaction to salt, even for a demon, and now his curiosity had gotten him hurt. 

He backed away, the pain coming in waves over his hands, and along his forearms like it too was trying to escape the burning sensation of his hands, all as he scooted across the carpet and away from the white substance. He leaned against a darkened corner of the apartment, a small bookshelf at his side and pulled his knees to his chest, the shadows comforting him like someone greeting an old friend. He curled up into a ball and he just wanted to disappear, for the black to swallow him whole. Even if the human had been nice originally, how long until he changed? How long until Skeppy rejected him? How long until they found him, and found him hiding with a human no less. He closed his eyes and curled his tail close, exhaustion and pain sweeping over him and lulling him into a light and uneasy sleep. 

He was awoken by a door creaking open and a voice carrying in stirring him from his sleep.

* * *

Skeppy cradled his phone between his shoulder and head as he walked carrying a few groceries, and a take out box from the pizza place they had gone to for dinner. Finn and Spifey both had parted ways earlier heading home, or to whatever it was they had to do, and honestly Skeppy didn’t mind. His brain was currently preoccupied with the demon in his apartment. He felt a little guilty trapping the guy in there, especially after Bad had been so nice to him, but Finn was right. Bad could still be dangerous, but he wasn’t a bad person. He was barely paying attention to his classmate who had called him. It was Eret, a person who he always thought was a little strange, but he got used to it eventually. The dude was calling asking about their class project for their history project. 

Skeppy had jokingly brought up talking about the history of mythos for their project, but Eret had been so on board with it, so he just went with it. Which made it a lot more enjoyable, sure it wasn’t conventional, and maybe they would be docked a few points for not following the exact guidelines, but hey they had fun, and that’s what mattered in the end. Plus what was history if not documents with some liberties taken? 

“Skeppy? You still there?” Eret’s deep voice asked from the other side of the line.

“Huh? Oh yeah sorry just a bit distracted.” Skeppy answered as he was fiddling with his apartment’s lock. 

Eret scoffed from the other side as they laughed, “Clearly, I was asking if you had finished printing those pictures I sent you.” 

He internally face palmed, “Oh geez, no I haven’t I totally forgot, I’m so sorry dude.” 

They made a small noise that was perhaps the verbal version of a shrug, “It’s ok, we still have a few more days before the rough draft needs to be turned in. What have you been so preoccupied with anyways?” 

“It’s nothing.” He stammered. 

“It’s nothing” They said using a mocking voice, “Dude I know we aren’t really close, but if something’s going on I don’t mind taking a bit more work. Like if something is going on with families or something.” 

Skeppy shook his head before sighing softly as the lock clicked open, “No, it’s really okay, just something.” He didn’t really feel like explaining what was going on to the classmate, the lights were all off in the apartment, so he flicked it on, “Eret . . .do you believe in all this mythos we’re researching?” He asked softly as he looked around. 

The demon he had left was nowhere to be found, and for a brief second panic surged in him. Where had Bad gone? His eyes were wide as he quickly set down the bags weighing down his arms on the small table in his mini kitchen. Eret was being quiet on the other end, which wasn’t helping. 

“Eret?”

“Yes. I do.” Eret finally said softly, “Not all of it, but yes. There are things I’ve. . .seen.” 

Skeppy felt a bit of tension fall off his shoulders, but he was still panicking at the missing demon, “O-oh.” 

“Do you Skeppy?” Skeppy was looking around his apartment holding his phone out on speaker as he flicked on lights and opened doors. 

“Yeah, I do, I mean we see zombies who burn in daylight, and skeletons. Why can’t things like vampires, and demons exist?” 

Eret was quiet for another moment, and he heard a soft clicking sound like sunglasses being placed down roughly. That was one thing that had been weird about Eret, he always wore darkly tinted sunglasses. It didn’t matter how sunny, or how dark out it was, the pale, dark haired boy had always worn them, even indoors. They always dodged the question when anyone asked, and teachers never seemed bothered by it, so eventually he just stopped asking. A part of him wished he could see Eret at the moment, he had known the classmate for almost a year, and they would chat casually in class, but he still had no idea what their eye color was. 

“I’ve gotta go Skep, I’ll call you later, if you need to talk I’m here okay?” Eret finally said softly, bringing him back from his thoughts. 

“Bye dude.”

“Bye.” 

As soon as the dial tone indicating that the call had been cut was audible Skeppy instantly shouted, “BAD?! Bad where are you?!” His throat was tight as he turned in the kitchen, still no sign of the demon. 

A quiet sheepish voice sounded somewhere near him, “I-I’m here. . . “ Bad stepped out from a darkened closet, his pale eyes looked sad, and he was hiding his hands in his folded arms.

Now the human was confused, he had checked that closet, he had checked it twice, granted he didn’t turn on the light, but enough of the light from the kitchen filtered into the tiny space he hadn’t needed to. Bad had not been in there just a few minutes prior. Did the demon also have the ability to turn invisible? Either way relief swept over him and he visibly relaxed as the small demon stepped into the open, now looking curiously to the box he had brought home. 

He smiled and opened it handing it to Halo, “I promised I’d bring you back food didn’t I?” 

Bad paused and looked up at him, not reaching out to the now open box of a few pizza slices they had left over. Skeppy held the box out still, now a bit awkwardly as the demon just stared at him. After a long moment he set the styrofoam container back on the table. 

“You uh. .you don’t need to eat it if you y’know, don’t actually need to eat.” He said awkwardly rubbing the back of his head as he began sorting through the few groceries he had bought and putting them away. 

Bad’s stomach growled in answer, and Skeppy chuckled softly as he heard the demon shuffle behind him and what sounded like him sitting in a chair. He kept his back turned unsure why Halo had been so hesitant in the first place when he was clearly hungry. Skeppy turned back around facing the demon who was holding a slice experimentally and studying it. Although his touch was delicate and ginger as he held the food. It quickly became apparent why Bad had been hiding his hands when he revealed himself. 

Red lines marred along his hand, angry and painful looking, like burns that littered his palms and fingertips. His hands trembled a little as he held the food, clearly pained by just the contact of the slightly warm food. What had happened to cause those? It clicked suddenly as he remembered checking his bedroom, and seeing the salt line in the doorway slightly messy and scattered. Guilt filled him as he was watching the boy at the table hesitantly trying to eat, being delicate with his hands, clearly it was causing pain just moving his hands. 

“Bad. . . .what happened?” He asked kindly, keeping his voice quiet and warm. 

Nevertheless, the demon stiffened, and looked downard as if scorned, “I. . tried to move the salt.” He said quietly, mumbling. 

Skeppy was already in his small first aid kit that his mother had insisted he have when he was moving here. Well now it was coming in handy as he sifted through its contents trying to find any sort of burn cream. Bad perked behind him, and silently moved to the human’s side. For having clawed feet he moved completely silently on the tiled flooring. 

“What are you doing?” Bad asked confused beside him, his strange accent made it sound cute.

_Why am I thinking a demon sounds cute?_

Skeppy shook his head, as if it would shake away the thought and he found what he was looking for. He held his hands out to the demon, “Give me your hands.” 

The demon paused pulling away slightly in confusion, “W-what?” 

“Your hands, put them in mine, I have something that’ll help.” He explained as he uncapped the cream and showed it to the demon. 

It occured in Skeppy’s mind that the demon had probably never seen modern medicine, especially if he had been rather bubbled in whatever his past life as a human had been. So he sighed softly, and began to explain how it would help soothe the pain, and take away the heat in the wounds. As he explained the other seemed to understand, and he nodded, seeming to now understand his intentions. So Bad handed his hands over, gingerly placing them on Skeppy’s palms and he began to rub in the cream, careful of the dull claws that the demon sported. Once he was done, he noticed Bad’s shoulders slump slightly, and his tail thumped a bit on the ground, that seemed like a good sign. 

He put the med kit back together and he could feel the glowing milky eyes of the demon looking at him on his back. He ignored the eerie feeling and shook it off, that was one thing he always was proud of, just being able to let things roll off his shoulders. He stood up as he finished putting it back together and turned to face Bad, who was still sitting on the floor looking at his hands seeming a little amazed. He laughed softly, shaking his head. 

“Have you really no concept of modern medicine?” He asked as he helped Bad to his feet.

Bad paused but nodded, “Medicine. . .was very different last time I was on the surface.” He admitted sheepishly. 

Skeppy put a tanned hand on his shoulder and laughed, “Well then, let’s get to know the modern world together.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh just finished Diamonds (which if u like skephalo go check out) and so now I'm invested in this and Right Side Of History. This book is gonna be a lot of fun, and thank you guys so much for all the support on this!! Much love 
> 
> -Nines


	4. Memories in Rain

The looming figure had it’s back to the young man as he entered. He was still nervous, uncertain, and confused. Bad glanced around the massive room, that was supposedly an office, but looked more like a miniature mansion. A large fireplace was lit, and the massive flames swirled a brilliant neon blue, they cast harsh shadows across the lavishly furnished room. The man in front of him had his hands clasped behind his back, his skin pale, and clean looking. Due to the dramatic lighting on the figure though, Bad was struggling to make out details. The man hummed, and as Bad closed the door, he chuckled quietly. It was a deep and ominous sound, like that of a man who could command the silence of a room simply by clearing his throat. To say Bad was intimidated was an understatement. 

“Daryll! I’ve been expecting you.” The man was American judging by his voice, it was gruff, and yet calm and pleasant. 

“You. . .you said you had answers for me?” Bad asked softly, his mind felt fuzzy. 

The first time he had woken up a few weeks ago he was confused, he felt out of place, and like he had been run over by a truck, twice. He still distinctly remembered what had happened just moments prior. Well it seemed moments prior at least. Churning water, cold, so  _ so  _ cold. The silhouette of the bridge fading as the salty water burned his eyes, as his lungs felt tight. So cold, so dark. Then he had come to, in a room. Dark crimson and near black bricks surrounded him. As well as an overwhelming heat, at least it seemed it should be, but the temperature wasn’t bothering him in the slightest. He remembered waking up in this body, this strange form that was not him, it wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t human, at least not any more. 

The man hummed lowly in acknowledgement, his back still to the newly turned demon, “Yes, and I assume you have questions.” 

Bad nodded, and then realized that the other probably couldn’t see him, but the man continued, he sounded like he was smiling, “Ah good, well first things first, you're dead, well you were dead. But congratulations! You didn’t actually die.” Bad cocked his head confused, his mind felt warm and tingly, like when you first woke up and are still trying to piece together where you are in a new place. “Darryl, what an interesting name. But! That was your living name, you should find a new one! Although I have a feeling you already know it?” 

Bad paused, confused, the stranger was right, he did know a name, although he wasn’t sure where he had gotten it from, he spoke hesitantly, “Badboyhalo?” 

“Badboyhalo. A mouthful.” The man chuckled, “How about I just call you Bad hm? For short.” 

The newly turned demon paused, but nodded again, he caught the stranger turning his head slightly, and the glint of crimson in the light. He shifted from the fire, and it roared and turned a warm orange color as he stepped away, settling into a nice desk, and fancy chair. The wood was blue, an unnatural color, and yet it was  _ real _ wood, it was too perfect of a match to normal wood for it to be anything else. Now that the stranger had stepped away from the fire he could make out details more clearly. 

He steepled his clawed hands on the desk, his suit cuffs hanging slightly loosely off of his wrists, “I am the Guardian to all Dark Creators, we are the Dark Creators, but most simply call us demons.” The suited man began to explain, “We are protectors of the world, the Earth. Granting wishes, making deals, and of course exchanges with humans.” The man cocked his head, a sharp grin on his face, yet it seemed genuine and not malicious, “I keep all the so called Light Creators at bay, they don’t care for us much.” He unclasped his hands and drummed his fingers on the desk, creating a soft tapping sound. 

“Light?” Bad asked carefully, and the man nodded. 

“I’m sure you have many questions, and you’ll have answers to everything in due time. But you know the basics. I am the leader here, and you do not question me or the council.”

“Council?”

“Yes, all of us have this.” The man pulled down his sleeve to reveal his wrist and an emblem that was tattooed onto the pale skin. It was a broken up square, with a marking or rune of some sort in the middle, “That is the first thing. Secondly! Most of us down here do not speak English, it is far too difficult to keep track of the many languages of the Surface. So! You shall learn Galactic, how to read, write, and speak it. We have many excellent teachers who will be more than happy to take you on and teach you our ways.” 

He paused shifting in his seat, “What if I didn’t actually want to die?” 

The man frowned briefly, and his eyes seemed to darken, “You’ll forget your human life soon enough, don’t fret it. Now.” The man paused and pressed a button on his desk, which hummed to life with a red glow, “Dream, could you please send our dear friend Fundy? We have a new member.” 

The response that came over the phone, he couldn’t understand, and it wasn’t English either. Perhaps it was the galactic this leader mentioned. Soon the man stood, he had long ears, and long hair that was pulled back into a small braid, it was as dark as the night sky. He gestured for Bad to stand, so he did, raising from the velvet chair and following behind. He was met with what looked like a humanoid fox standing at the door. He had a happy, and slightly derpy grin, several orange tails that waved behind him, and fox ears. This must be Fundy. He turned to the man as Fundy shook Bad’s hand, and Bad glanced over his shoulder. 

“I didn’t catch your name.” Bad asked kindly, doing his best to smile. 

The man laughed again, “Ah Halo, well forgive me for my rudeness you can call - “

The demon woke up with a harsh start, his hands shaking as he ran his pale hand through his hair. He had shifted to his human form late last night, not wanting to scare his human buddy if Skeppy woke up for some midnight snack. It was probably stupid, wasting even minor magic like that when it wasn’t needed, especially after the previous days adventure. Well adventure was a more pleasant way to describe it at least. He rubbed his eyes, and sat up, putting his head in his hands. He hated that memory, he hated almost everyone in it. He didn’t want it to be a memory, he wished it was just a nightmare that could be shaken away like cobwebs in some dusty and forgotten attic. He looked around the apartment, his hands didn’t sting as much as they had earlier, the “burn cream” as the tanned boy had called it, had helped immensely in his wounds. Thanks to his improved vision in the dark, he was easily able to make out details with just the dim moonlight that filtered through a parted curtain. 

The table was clean, and the counters too. Bad had insisted on helping for the human’s hospitality, and while at first Skeppy protested, Bad was stubborn, and wanted to help. So eventually he had reluctantly agreed, and now the apartment was clean. He listened and heard the gentle pattering of rain from the outside.  _ Rain _ . He hadn’t seen rain in so long, he perked up, and picked his way to the window. Sudden excitement swelled in him, drowning out the sickly feeling of his dream. He carefully pulled away the curtains, and lifted the blinds, he wanted to just throw them open, but he also didn’t want to wake the human. He remembered (even if barely) that humans actually did need sleep every night. He stared out the window, as wide eyed as a toddler as he watched the heavy thick rain droplets pour down and spatter on the glass window. 

He could feel the cold through the paned glass, and his breath created a little bit of a fog on the window from its warmth. He strained his eyes to watch the sheets of water pour from the heavens. He couldn’t help but smile, he wanted to be out there, to go outside. He wanted to just open the window. He almost did in his awe, but caught himself last minute, pulling his hand away just shy of touching the salt line on the window. His heart sank slightly, he couldn’t open it, not with that barrier in the way. He found his sudden excitement faltering, and he mentally scolded himself for it. Skeppy had every right! This was Skeppy’s home. Bad reluctantly settled for just watching out the window, and listening to the heavy thundering rain. There were no flashes of lightning, or deep rumbling booms, so it was a calm storm. It was comforting, and he sighed contentedly.

He tiptoed into the kitchen, the tiled floor cold on his bare feet, and grabbed a chair from the tiny table, hauling it over to the window. As he did, he banged a leg against the back of the couch, and froze, just standing there in the living room with a chair. He strained to hear any movement from the bedroom, but was greeted with just the heavy pounding of water instead. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and brought the chair over. Settling onto the cushion, he pulled his knees to his chest, and set his chin on his knees. A soft and longing smile found its way onto his face as he watched. It was early am, and the human wouldn’t be up for hours, and yet he was more than happy to just watch the rain go by. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for shorter chapter this time round :/   
> Anyways next one will be longer don't worry! But I wanted to get this tidbit of info on Bad's past out, and if it was too long I may give away the leader before I want to give his name reveal. Hope y'all enjoy! And as always feedback is always appreciated. :)


	5. Sleepy Letters

Skeppy awoke to the buzzing of his phone’s alarm, and the gentle pattering of rain on the apartment building. He reached over practically slapping his phone to silence it and squinted against the bright screen as he looked at the time. It was a two past eight in the morning, he groaned and sat up rubbing his eyes. He sat there for a few minutes, letting himself wake up properly, even so, any surface vaguely horizontal seemed comfy enough to fall asleep on again. He forced himself out from his blankets and onto the cold floor, the apartment was silent save for the constant white noise created by the weather. 

He dragged himself across the living room and into his bathroom, more zombie-like while half awake than his normally very energetic self. He yawned and as he was turning on the light to the bathroom, a figure on the window jolted him to awareness. He was startled initially by the huddled darkness in front of an open window, but sighed in relief as he realized it was simply his new friend Halo. 

“You scared me there.” He laughed leaning on the doorway as he spoke to the demon. 

He was greeted with the reply of silence. He frowned, and raised an eyebrow in confusion, he was no expert but he tried to think back on the books he had read about demons. Well, first off Bad was already unusual for a demon, he momentarily abandoned his decision to look nice for the day, and went to his small bookshelf nightstand in his room. He skimmed over the bound titles, before finding what he was looking for. It was an older book that he found at some second hand shop, and he quickly flicked through a few of his neon colored sticky notes that he had pasted in between the yellowing pages. 

“Aha!” 

He found what he was looking for and skimmed over the paragraphs printed in old and fading ink. It probably wouldn’t help much, but it was the best shot he had without actually just blatantly asking the demon in his living room.  **_Duat, Nethers, The End, and Otherworldly Creatures, A Documentation by Dr. Bright._ ** He thumbed through the chapter marked with the orange sticky note. 

_ Description: Color, size, and general appearance may vary, but every demon documented has loomed over seven feet tall, many hide their face, or simply do not have one. While humanoid in appearance, their skin will not be a natural color, their eyes will not have irises, usually being entirely a single uniform color. Do not attempt to touch a demon, even if they seem passive, they have claws adorned on both hands, and their own feet. These beastly creatures do not speak English, and cannot communicate with us. All attempts of communication have ended in violence, or retreating of the creature.  _

_ Intelligence: These beings are highly intelligent, they clearly do understand english, and many appear to be multilingual in both modern languages, and forgotten dead ones that are no longer spoken. They are cunning, and calculating, easily able to sense our intentions regardless of our words, or outward appearances. They rival that of any well educated human, and we must remain wary of them. Do not give them any information, we do not know what they can do with knowledge of our modern world.  _

_ These creatures have differing claims, leading to conflicting information. We have seven subjects in our current possession, and yet despite the small sample size, the information they provide seems to be unvital to their personal cares, wants, or lives. Their names we have asked all do not have a natural English Translation, but some seem to be named after items, objects, or persons of the past. Others we are still working on translating. They claim the language they speak is ‘Galactic’ but there are few written documentations of this language, and all subjects have refused to act as translators. _

_ As well as their names their stories change as well. They refuse to speak of their home, their governmental system, or their abilities, even when put under harsh conditions. Two of our subjects claim that they were human, but never died. Four of our subjects claim they were human, but did die before becoming what they are now. One has refused to cooperate, and given us nothing.  _

Skeppy frowned slightly as he sat cross legged with the book in his lap, all of this didn’t seem to match Halo at all. Sure he did have black skin, and little claws, but those claws were so dull they didn’t seem to be able to cause harm even if the boy had wanted to. He also wasn’t tall, only a few inches taller than Skeppy, so he was just. . .a normal height. Not some looming ghastly figure that one would expect from demons. Plus Bad had spoken English fluently ever since they met, sure he had a funny accent, but maybe to the demon he as a human had a funny accent. It made him question the book, but nonetheless he continued to read through the book. 

_ Upon further investigation, these creatures appear to be summonable, if one were to perform a proper ritual a demon can be summoned, and will be obedient. However these trials are risky, and often only temporary. Demons seem to be willing to make deals with us humans though, able to grant knowledge, minor abilities, and perhaps more. In exchange for something the beast wants, this has no consistent pattern though as it seems. We have reason to believe that this is the only way they can cross into our living world.  _

_ These beings also do not appear to need sleep. Our watch guards that are posted around the clock have yet to report to any of them sleeping, despite the weeks that have passed, so it leads me to the conclusion that they do not sleep. Further research needed.  _

  
  


**_Notes:_ ** _ Salt seems to be the most effective weapon against them. It has a volatile reaction to skin contact, and any weak points, soft tissues, and open wounds seem to receive an immediate submission of the demon. The substance doesn’t seem to matter what form it is in, with the exception of food. When integrated into baked foods it seems to nullify the effect of salt on these beings. They also are aware of the injuries one can receive from it, experiments were. . .less than successful, and without willing participants. Although in desperation, some have attempted to interact with salt barriers created, but none have been able to dispel what lies between them and their destination. Certain unusual demons that are our wild cards seem to have a more harsh and extreme reaction to the mineral as well. This can be used as a tool of obedience, or protection it seems. Below is a written note one gave us, we are unable to translate the written script, and cannot find any matching codes, or dead languages that match. I’m putting it here for further research, if we find a translation it will be on the next page. What is most unusual about this letter is that it was given to us by our uncooperative subject. He seemed to respond positively to us taking it, but still has refused to speak with us, or disclose any information. After the signature is the date of the letter being received by a member of our field team. We believe this is written in these creatures native language. _

╎ ᓵᔑリ’ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎꖌ, ╎’ᒲ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎꖎ𝙹∴ᒷ↸ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎꖌ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ||𝙹⚍ ⊣⚍||ᓭ, リ𝙹リᒷ 𝙹⎓ ⚍ᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ ʖ|| 𝙹⚍∷ ꖎᔑ∴ᓭ. ∴ᒷ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᓵ𝙹𝙹!¡ᒷ∷ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ, ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ╎ᓭ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖᒷᓭℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ╎ ᓵᔑリ ⊣╎⍊ᒷ ||𝙹⚍. ∴ᒷ ᒲᒷᔑリ ||𝙹⚍ リ𝙹 ⍑ᔑ∷ᒲ, リ𝙹リᒷ 𝙹⎓ ⚍ᓭ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑ∷ᒲ ⚍!¡𝙹リ ⍑⚍ᒲᔑリᓭ, ᔑリ↸ ∴ᒷ ᓵᔑ∷ᒷ ᔑʖ𝙹⚍ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ꖎ╎⍊ᒷᓭ 𝙹⎓ ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷||ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣. ╎ ᔑᒲ ᓭℸ ̣ ╎ꖎꖎ ||𝙹⚍リ⊣, ╎リ ⎓ᔑᓵℸ ̣ , 𝙹リꖎ|| ᔑ ⎓ᒷ∴ ↸ᒷᓵᔑ↸ᒷᓭ 𝙹ꖎ↸ᒷ∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑリ ||𝙹⚍ ⍑⚍ᒲᔑリᓭ, ʖ⚍ℸ ̣ ╎ ᓵᔑリ’ℸ ̣ ᓭᔑ|| ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ᔑꖎ𝙹⚍↸. ⍑ᒷ ╎ᓭ ᔑꖎ∴ᔑ||ᓭ ∴ᔑℸ ̣ ᓵ⍑╎リ⊣ ⚍ᓭ. 𝙹⚍∷ リᔑᒲᒷᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ 𝙹⚍∷ ⊣╎⍊ᒷリ ↸ᒷᒲ𝙹リ リᔑᒲᒷᓭ. !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ ∷ᒷꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ ⚍ᓭ, ∴ᒷ ⍑ᔑ⍊ᒷ ꖎ𝙹⍊ᒷ↸ 𝙹リᒷᓭ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ᔑᓭ ||𝙹⚍ ↸𝙹, ∴ᒷ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ⊣𝙹 ⍑𝙹ᒲᒷ ᔑ⊣ᔑ╎リ. ╎ ʖᒷ⊣ 𝙹⎓ ||𝙹⚍ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ⎓╎リ↸ ᔑ ℸ ̣ ∷ᔑリᓭꖎᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ, ∴ᒷ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ᔑꖎꖌ, ᔑリ↸ ∴ᒷ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ⎓∷ᒷᒷ↸𝙹ᒲ. ∷ᒷ⊣ᔑ∷↸ꖎᒷᓭᓭ 𝙹⎓ ↸ᒷᔑℸ ̣ ⍑ᓭ, ∴ᒷ ∴ᒷ∷ᒷ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ꖎ╎ꖌᒷ ||𝙹⚍ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ⚍!¡𝙹リ ᔑ ℸ ̣ ╎ᒲᒷ. ⍑⚍ᒲᔑリ. 

  * ᒷ∷ᒷℸ ̣ **_October 13, 1903_**



A small thought came to his mind, as he skimmed over the strange letter, of course just as it was to the author, it was gibberish to him. But perhaps Bad would be willing to play translator for him. He grabbed another sticky note and stuck it to the side of the page marking the letter, and shut it. When he walked back out and listened, he heard another quiet sound as he passed the demon again. He was snoring quietly. 

He smiled a little at the sleeping form, and grabbed a blanket, placing it over the demon, before continuing with his daily routine once again. It occurred in the back of his mind with the note from the book saying that  _ they do not need sleep _ , and yet there was Bad, sleeping on a chair outside a window. It didn’t seem terribly comfortable, and he wondered why he had fallen asleep away from the window. He flicked off the light, and as he passed the demon again, he looked out the now opened window. His heart sank with guilt, and he felt awful as he saw why the demon was away from the window. 

There was a thick salt line on the sill, and on the top of it preventing him from either unlocking it, or leaning on the sill. He frowned, he understood why Finn had taken those precautions, yet seeing the little huddled form, clinging awkwardly to the chair made his stomach turn in uncomfortable knots. He went and found a vacuum to clean it up, and while he felt bad about most likely waking the boy, he felt just as bad leaving the salt. So he plugged it in, and as the machine whirred to life, a startled squeak and a crash sounded behind him as he cleaned up the salt. He quickly flicked it off and turned to the noise. 

Bad was clinging to the couch, and a pillow which was on it, eyes as wide as an owl, and his tail out behind him like a flag. He lowered the hose to the vacuum, and stifled a laugh as he saw the scene in front of him. It was like bringing home a kitten, who was apparently terrified of the thing called a vacuum. Bad had his dark hood pulled down and around his face, which was also buried into the pillow he was clutching to his chest. Before Skeppy could ask if he was okay, the demon slowly lifted his head. 

“What is the terrible thing?!” He yelped, voice muffled by the fabric in his face. 

Skeppy set down the hose, and sat next to the other on his couch, and put a tanned hand on his shoulder, “It’s called a vacuum. It’s like a more advanced broom.” 

“Why is it so loud?” 

“Because. . .it’s a machine?” Honestly Skeppy’s vacuum was fairly quiet, even outside of vacuum terms. 

Bad paused, clearly still spooked and Skeppy was doing his best impression of a person who wasn’t finding this hilarious, before cocking his head a little. 

“A machine? Like what you find in factories?” 

“Yeah, but a lot smaller, and well. . .machines are kind of everywhere nowadays. In most homes actually.” He nodded as he explained. 

“Is your fone a machine?” 

“Phone, with a ph.” He smiled trying not to laugh again. “That’s one way to describe it, but it’s more like a computer. Dude when were you last in the Overworld?” 

Bad paused looking away, and biting his lip, but before Skeppy could back pedal and apologize for overstepping, he answered. “1809. . . .that’s when I died. I didn’t return after that, until now.” 

Skeppy wanted to ask, he wanted to learn more, but he had a feeling he had already stomped over a few nerves with scaring him awake, and then asking about his own death. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to remember dying, he pushed that thought away with a shudder. He patted Bad’s shoulder and stood up. 

“I’m just cleaning up the salt, can I turn it back on?” 

The demon boy slowly nodded, clearly still uncertain, but he put his hands over his ears in an effort to muffle the noise as he turned it back on and finished cleaning it up. He flitted from the two windows in the front room, and his bedroom door. He stopped and stood at the entry way door, and he glanced over at Bad, who had two pillows over his head at this point. With a resolved sigh, he cleaned up the final barrier that kept the boy trapped in Skeppy’s home. He flicked it off for a final time, and wrapped up the cord. He saw Halo slowly sit up with the silence, before looking to the window. 

Bad darted to the window, and he pressed his dark face to the glass, and watched the rain, his tail wagging idly behind him every now and again. As Skeppy stood, he watched as Bad pulled open the window excitedly, and for a pounding heartbeat, he worried that Halo would bolt out the window. But whether more to his surprise, or his relief, the demon didn’t. Instead he carefully put a dark palm out and into the dreary weather, he heard a quiet laugh. 

He finished getting ready for his class at ten, occasionally checking on the other, and glancing at him. The demon was still sitting in front of the open window, his jacket, hands and some of his hair was soaked from him sticking his face out the window, and he shook his head as he pulled his blue hoodie over his head. 

“Dude aren’t you freezing?” 

Bad shook his head glancing back at Skeppy with a happy fanged grin. “Dude? . . .well I haven’t seen rain for. . .” he looked up a moment, most likely doing the math in his head. “For over two hundred years! It’s so beautiful.” 

He sounded so genuinely happy, and so full of awe, and his joy was contagious. Skeppy laughed, grabbing his backpack, and umbrella preparing to head out for the day, “Just don’t get soaked outside and make my floors wet.” He half joked as he opened the door. 

As he shut the door, he wasn’t even worried about the other escaping while he was gone, it didn’t even cross the back of his mind as he shrugged his bag on and began his short walk to his college’s campus. He walked outside, and opened the umbrella, somehow he had a bit more of an appreciation for the downpour above him. He picked up his pace as he glanced at his watch realizing he only had about ten minutes to get into class on time. 

He caught his breath as he burst into the room, just barely on time before the class started, a few students glanced towards the door as he threw it open, but nobody said anything. At least his first class was history, which was one of his favorites, especially now with Bad around, he had a heightened interest in learning what was around when Bad had been alive. He plopped down next to Eret, who gave him a warm smile, which quickly turned to a confused frown, before back to his normal gentle smile the kid usually wore. Eret pushed her sunglasses up and turned back to the lecture, whispering softly. 

“I was almost worried you weren’t going to show up today.” He said quietly. 

Skeppy pulled his bag off, and grabbed his notebook from his only slightly damp backpack, and the book from earlier. He shrugged. “Like I said, nothing bad going on, just been busy.” 

He saw Eret nod beside him, and as the teacher finished taking attendance, and explaining what she wanted from the rough draft, she dismissed the students to their groups. Skeppy took the chance to quickly flick to the page from earlier with the note. Eret was someone who always seemed to know odd things, so maybe it was worth a shot asking him about the note. As he flicked to the page, he kept his eyes on the book but asked. 

“Hey Eret?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you know this language?” He shifted the book over, brushing against the other student. 

Eret stiffened, and he could  _ hear _ the sharp intake of breath beside him. “No.” They replied harshly. 

Skeppy raised an eyebrow at the reaction, his body language said otherwise. “Oh, well it was worth asking.” 

“Where the fuck did you find that book?” They hissed. 

“I . ..My mom gave it to me years ago. I- She uh said she got it from a second hand store.” 

Eret’s expression was hard to read with his glasses on, and his pursed lips in a hard line, and that line turned into a frown, and he saw his brow furrow. They sighed pushing the book back over to the tanned boy. “Good for you. I never want to see that again, put that shit away.” They said coldly. 

Skeppy was taken aback by their harsh tone, Eret was normally a pretty laid back guy, and was the last person you’d think of to have a short temper, yet somehow, he had just pissed the other off to the point of cussing him out. He withdrew the book, half expecting Eret to tear out the page. He tried to focus back on their project again, but felt like he was walking on eggshells after the whole ordeal with the book. 

Eret handed him the shared notebook of their notes that they would trade every other day with the research they had, and with it the folder of anything printed they needed. The other seemed to have calmed down from snapping earlier, but was still giving him the cold shoulder throughout the class period. Finally Skeppy frowned, putting the notebook down, with a few minutes of class left. 

“You clearly know something about that book.” He knew he was pushing it, but his curiosity was above any worry he had. 

Eret raised her head for a long moment, holding Skeppy’s gaze from behind the sunglasses, keeping silent. Skeppy prodded again. “Why? Do you like, know demons or something?” He thought back to the phone call last night. 

Eret’s nose wrinkled a bit, as she frowned. “You could say that.” 

“That’s vague.” 

“Your point?” 

“My point?” Skeppy returned the frown. “My point is that you’re hiding something from me.” 

“So? I’m under no obligation to tell you anything, Skeppy.” Eret shot back, already putting his things back in his backpack. “I gave you an answer. That is all, we aren’t friends.” 

That stung a bit, sure he and Eret weren’t super close, and hadn’t ever really hung out outside of class, but the bitter tone, and sharp statements still were jarring and they hurt a bit. He sank back in his seat. They shook their head, and huffed, putting their own books away into their bag, and threw it on. 

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your nose out of that.” Eret said quietly, before making his way to the classroom door. 

He had hoped to either get an answer, or just gain nothing, but if anything he just had more questions. He was packing away his own things, and he chewed his lip in thought as he put his books and notes away. He may have a lot of questions, but one thing was for certain. Eret knew exactly what that note was, and what was on it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I'm in consistent with Eret's pronouns and I genuinely don't care bc Eret literally has on all their profiles "any pronouns".  
> Also any theories about who "he" is?   
> Or Eret's behavior?   
> Kudos to those of you who translate the galactic  
> Here is a translator: https://lingojam.com/StandardGalacticAlphabet


	6. Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten.

Skeppy sighed as he walked home, the rain had gone from a downpour to a light drizzle, and puddles had formed in the sidewalk deformations. A few other students milled around the campus, but due to the seemingly dreary weather, it was mostly empty. His mind was still lingering on his encounter with Eret earlier, he had never seen the other be so cold and closed off before, and he had sounded so upset. He shifted his small umbrella above him causing water to spatter down in front of him and he smiled. Despite the gray and damp weather, having seen Halo become so excited, so amazed about something that most people hated, it had changed his own view on the rain. He found it nice, and calming as he trekked home. 

He came home and opened the door which was unlocked and greeted Halo. “Hey buddy! I’m home.”

He was suddenly tackled and stumbled backwards as the demon pulled him into a warm hug. Bad had wrapped his arms around Skeppy and nuzzled against him. The demon was surprisingly warm and comforting despite the surprise attack of hugs. Skeppy stumbled backwards for a second, but hesitantly returned the hug, he wasn’t normally one for physical contact, but for some reason. . .Bad’s hugs didn’t bother him. The other pulled away, he was in his human appearance at the moment, but his smile still had its little fangs, and his green eyes shone brightly. 

“You’re home!” He squeaked happily before finally pulling away from the hug. 

Skeppy patted his back, and set down his bag by the door with his damp umbrella. The window was still opened, and he could hear the rain pattering outside, and as he was putting his things away he looked at his buddy. He noticed the chair was also still in place, but this time scooted closer to the window. 

“Have you been at the window all day?” 

“Maybe.” Halo admitted sheepishly and looked away embarrassed. 

Skeppy shook his head with a laugh and he flicked on the lights, “Dude, it’s pitch black in here, turn on some lights. You’re not a vampire.” He said it jokingly, but saw the demon tense. So he dropped it and corrected himself, “Just, I can barely see anything.” 

Halo gave a small smile again, “Sorry I forget humans can’t see in the dark.” 

“You can see in the dark?!” 

“Yeah . . . ?” 

“That’s so awesome!” Skeppy looked back at him, “So like, can you just see even with no light?” 

“Pretty much yeah, the Nether doesn’t have a lot of natural light.” 

Skeppy paused a bit as he walked into the kitchen getting a snack for himself, he had almost forgotten that he was from the Nether, Bad just . . . didn’t fit what he knew about demons, both in looks, personality, and behavior. He went and grabbed the old book from his bag and gestured for Bad to come over to the table and sit. When they were facing across from one another he flipped to the marked page, and quickly pushed the book to the other boy, who looked at him confused. 

“Do you speak this language?” He tapped the pasted in letter, and he watched as Bad’s green eyes flicked between the human, and the book with confusion. 

“Where did you get this?” He sounded more confused, unlike Eret’s accusation of a question earlier today. 

“My mom, anyways, do you understand it or not?” 

“This is written in Galactic.” Bad spoke slowly, looking over the page, “This was handwritten by. . .” 

Skeppy felt like he was on the edge of his seat, and he watched as Bad mouthed the words written down, Skeppy was no lip reader, but he also could tell that they weren’t English. He leaned forward, closer to the blond, holding his breath. 

“What does it say?” 

Bad looked up, studying him silently as he sat up straighter, “I . . I don’t think this book was ever meant for the public That letter. . . “ He saw a shiver wrack the boy, “I don’t want to translate it all, but is there something specific from it you want?” 

  
  


He paused, running a tanned finger over the notes as the book was handed back. He didn’t want to press the other, especially if this would upset him, but he also wanted some sort of answer to his questions. He handed it back coming to a resolve. 

“Who wrote it?” 

Bad glanced back down at the paper briefly, “Their name is Eret. That’s what it says at least. . .I knew an Eret.” 

He felt his skin run cold and the color drain from his face with the name. It made sense now, if it was Eret, as in the Eret in his class, why would a demon be in college? Why would a demon be on the surface?  _ How _ had Eret gotten here? Was it the same Eret even? Bad was waving a pale hand in front of him which brought him out of his head. 

“Skeppy? Are you okay?” 

He nodded slowly, “Y-yeah, I’m fine.” 

“No you’re not.” 

“. . . Fine. I know an Eret too, he’s in my history class, he ym, he’s part of my history project. He’s always been a little weird, and he has a really deep voice. He also always wears sunglasses, and I was just thinking what if it’s the same Eret?”

“Maybe?” Bad paused looking down at the page, seeming to read over it again, “But you can’t just accuse someone of being unnatural just because they’re weird.” 

He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair leaning back in his chair, he was still reeling about what he had just been told, and his mind was running wild with questions and ideas. Bad was watching him from across the table with a little bit of confusion in his face. Skeppy sat up and took the book back, he tried to think of other places he had seen galactic written in it. He was quickly flipping through the pages, it wasn’t often seen in the book since the author didn’t ever figure out how to read the language, let alone speak it, but it was in a few other places in the segment on demons. There about thirty pages later was another note from one of the demons, someone different supposedly, plus while it was hard for him to tell with the symbol like language, it was different handwriting it seemed. He skimmed over the letter, and the author’s notes around it. 

_ This letter was intercepted by a member of our field team at the local rift. We have not seen any of the demonic entities leave nor come from the rift, but there have been a few strange mobs that retreat too quickly for capture. We are trying once again to decrypt this language. However as per expected by now, none of the subjects are being cooperative. _

⍑ᒷꖎ!¡ ╎ᓭ ʖᒷ╎リ⊣ ᓭᒷリℸ ̣ , ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓵ𝙹⚍リᓵ╎ꖎ ⍑ᔑᓭ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ᒷ↸ ᔑꖎꖎ 𝙹⎓ 𝙹⚍∷ ᒲ╎ᓭᓭ╎リ⊣ ᓭ𝙹ꖎ↸╎ᒷ∷ᓭ. ╎⎓ 𝙹⚍∷ ↸𝙹ᓵ⚍ᒲᒷリℸ ̣ ᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ ╎ᓭ ᓵ𝙹∷∷ᒷᓵℸ ̣ ╎ℸ ̣ ╎ᓭ ||𝙹⚍ ᒷ∷ᒷℸ ̣ , ᔑᓭ ∴ᒷꖎꖎ ᔑᓭ ᓭ╎ ̇/ 𝙹ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ∷ᓭ. ᓵ𝙹リ⎓╎∷ᒲᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ リᒷᒷ↸ᒷ↸ 𝙹⎓ ᒲ╎ᓭᓭ╎リ⊣ ᓵ∷ᒷᔑℸ ̣ 𝙹∷ᓭ. リᔑᒲᒷᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ ꖎ╎ᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ↸ ʖᒷꖎ𝙹∴

ᒷ∷ᒷℸ ̣ 

⎓⚍リ↸||

ᑑ⚍ᔑᓵꖌ╎ℸ ̣ ||

⊣∷╎ᔑリ

╎ᓭꖌᔑꖎꖎ

ᓭ╎∷ᒷリ

⊣ᒷ𝙹∷⊣ᒷ

He slid it back over to Bad, who skimmed over the letter, and his brow furrowed, “Wait. . . if this never reached them.” He seemed to be talking to himself, “That would be why. . .oh.” 

“What? What is it?” Skeppy leaned forward curiosity egging him on. 

Bad looked up, “I . . . **I** wrote this.” 

Skeppy couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped him, “What?! But this is like a hundred years old?!” 

Bad frowned as he pushed the book back over, “Skeppy,  _ I died in 1809 _ . You don’t think I just like. . vanished until now do you?” 

Skeppy honestly didn’t know what he was thinking, “No, just. . .could you at least translate this for me then?” 

The blond paused, chewing his lip for a moment, before reluctantly sighing, “Not word for word, but it was a letter from. . .our government to some missing soldiers. They’d been missing for a few years, and we received word about where they were. So I drafted and wrote this letter, basically telling them help was coming. But we never got a reply.” 

“Then what?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“What happened if you never got a reply?” 

Bad looked at him seriously, “We raided the facility. Well. . .the council did at least. I was sent to help.” 

Skeppy saw the hesitant look on Bad’s face, but his mind wasn’t thinking about the other’s feelings in the moment too swept up in the story, “And the facility?” 

“A team of seventeen were sent, there were over seventy scientists, workers, and others on site. Only this author, and two others knew about the demons located on sight. The only reason this book reached the public was because of me, and I shouldn’t have let that happen.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Bad’s face turned cold, “Numbers don’t matter when a human can’t kill you fast enough. I stole the book, and thought it would help others, and now I see how dangerous this is in general hands.” He was standing up, and walking towards the living room. 

“What do you mean? What are you saying?” Skeppy hopped up repeating himself. 

“I'm saying, that book is the only survivor of a massacre, a massacre that was my fault.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short upload again sorry! 
> 
> I shall make up for it next chapter :3


	7. Shadows Of The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: Violence, Blood, slight death of a minor character.

When he had heard the apartment door open, and the human boy returned home, he had been elated that the boy was home. While he was no longer trapped in the apartment, he also didn’t really have a huge interest and exploring on his own, especially since any passing human could be another dark creator in disguise, just like he was. Although he had admittedly gone outside about an hour or so before Skeppy returned human. He had just gone out, and literally danced in the rain, it got him a few odd looks, and probably murmured comments, but it didn’t matter. It was his second encounter with natural water since returning to the surface, and his first encounter with rain in over 200 years. He had returned inside sopping wet, and yet not cold, although he was pretty quick to dry off with his warm skin. 

It was a trait he was never really sure how to explain, but ever since he turned his body temperature had raised significantly higher than any natural living being should be able to tolerate. So it kept him from feeling the chill of the surface, and in this case, kept him from trailing a trenchcoat’s worth of puddles back into Skeppy’s home. 

He shook himself off regardless, in his human form, and he was just starting to investigate when Skeppy had returned. The human boy quickly pulled his attention to the table, and handed him a book. It was worn, and bound leather, and its pages were rough and yellowing on the edges. It looked printed, but the text was clearly handwritten, with slightly loopy and flowing handwriting keeping notes and documentations in the book. He watched as the tan boy skimmed through pages, and handed him a note written in galactic. The second letter he had instantly recognized as his own handwriting. He felt rooted in place as he picked his way through memories and spoke to the human. But his voice felt faint, and like every word was clawing its way from his mouth, and forcing its way through water instead of air. 

“I mean, that book is the only survivor of a massacre, a massacre that was my fault.”

He had tried so hard to forget that day, he really, truly had, and he wished he had been successful. He was staring at his own note, one hundred years later, and everything felt like it was falling away in the present. Reality blended with memories, and Skeppy’s voice didn’t register in his mind as he looked down at the fading ink. 

“Badboyhalo.” A voice jarred him from his studies in the deep netherrack room. “Dream is requesting your presence.” 

He knew the boy, he was a young demon, new to their team, only recently turned. So, he spoke in English, which Bad didn’t mind, he still enjoyed hearing the language when it was so scantily used deep in the burning depths of red rock. He fished for his name in his memory. Something with a q. . .q and ducks. Quackity! That had been his name, he gave a small smile as he looked up at the other.

“Thank you Quackity.” He nodded, pushing himself off the chair, “Do you know why?” 

“It’s. . .regarding the letters to the surface. To the stolen subjects? I- I’m not sure what he meant to be honest, but I assume you do.” 

“Yes, thanks again Quackity, I’ll see you around okay?” 

He saw the young demon nod, and Bad brushed past him, walking down the brown and gray halls, before taking a turn into the heart of the fortress. He always found himself staring at the strange and other worldly mobs that hovered and cracked around him. Well, who was he to call them other worldly when he himself was? He pushed the thought aside, and knocked on the large blue doors. It was Dream’s quarters. 

Dream was one of the most feared soldiers under the Council. He wasn’t technically directly on it, and yet many of its lower members would never dare challenge him, nor his judgement. Dream was not much older than Bad, and he was one of the rare demons who had not died before being turned. He held his breath, rigid and stiff as he waited for whatever it may be that the general wanted. The door opened swiftly, and Dream looked down at him. What jarred Halo the most was the fact that for once, the general was not wearing his normal plaster white mask. 

“Halo.” He rumbled, side stepping to allow Halo into the room. 

His quarters were large, and clearly had several rooms attached to it. But the main living area had a massive map laid out on a desk. Pins, written notes, and plans that he recognized as battalion organizations were strewn about haphazardly.

“You wanted me sir?” He straightened his shoulders, but the General still towered over him well over seven feet tall in his true form. 

Dream studied him for a moment, his green eyes and ashen white skin were terrifying, the man meant business if he was showing his true form in front of Halo. A demon technically has  _ three _ forms, well most do. They had their camo, which may be human, or some unlucky and smaller saps had animals. Then it was their ‘casual’ form as he had been taught, which was used for most meetings, and when around peers. Finally there was a demon’s true form. It was what the really looked like, and even to fellow demons, it was seen as either an act of pure trust, or pure intimidation. At the moment Halo wasn’t sure which it was supposed to be. 

Dream scoffed, “No, he wants you to lead this.” His voice had a sneer to it. Definitely intimidation. “So, you and I are going to lead this battalion and raid the facility.” 

Bad froze, “You mean J- “ 

Dream raised a hand, and he found the words dying in his throat immediately, “Names have power Darryl.” He said coldly, intentionally using his human name. 

He flinched and nodded letting the general continue. 

“So,” Dream stood straight (as if he needed to be taller), “Here is the plan that we’ve written out. You and I are the head of this operation, and I don’t expect something like  _ you _ . To actually be involved in combat. Regardless, you, me, and seventeen soldiers have been assigned to this raid. However, we need a few more trusted members among us. I have four soldiers who are ready at my side. I need you to summon real soldiers to stand by our side.”

“S-sir?” 

“Yes?” 

“I’m . . I’m not a soldier, or a general, why am I assigned to this?” 

“Because Eret is your friend, and is Fundy’s friend.” 

_ Fundy _ . The nine tailed fox demon must’ve pulled some strings to allow him in on this operation. But why in high End stars would he be given a leading role in this? Like a mind reader, Dream continued. 

“He wants you to prove your allegiance. You’re on thin ice with the council, and it's been a battle keeping your hide alive as is. This is your chance to show that you are worthwhile enough to not be thrown to the Lights.” 

Halo tensed just hearing the word, he had seen that gateway once, and the visceral image of the screeching corpse was forever burned into his brain. An involuntary shudder took him as he listened to the general speak. 

“And if I refuse? What happens if I don’t get council approval?” He asked softly, almost afraid of the answer. 

Dream’s face split into a grin, his several fangs glinted in the sunlight, “I imagine they’ll call for your removal.” 

(A time skip brought to you by a lazy author ~)

Halo pulled his dark hood up as they stood at the bounds. Dream was slightly ahead of him, running over the plans once again. Technoblade, a large brutish pig-like demon loomed behind Halo, despite the man’s hulking form, he was friendly once you got to know him. As well as a little over a dozen others stood around him. Dream turned his poisonous green gaze upon Halo, and he nodded ever so slightly. He noticed the glass jars at Dream’s hips, swirling with a green flame that seemed to be living despite the lack of fuel or any source. He had to bite back any qualms he had with it still. He and Dream had already butt heads once on him using Greek fire. It had ended in Halo being silenced by threats, as did most of their interactions. 

He tore his eyes away and summoned his weapon. A magic that felt so horribly wrong for how perfectly natural it was. A weapon meant solely for killing, and it was completely made for him,  _ by _ him.

It was a sleek and dark axe, the handle and shaft coming to a spear-like point at the tip, and the blades were made of stygian iron. The black metal glinting cruelly in the dancing firelight of the Nether. It was a dual edged axe, each side not a perfect circle, but instead pointing inward at the top, with a gentle slope out and then back in. The bottoms of each blade pointed outwards slightly like barbs. It was a beautiful weapon, and its weight felt balanced in his hands. He hated it. 

The barrier would lead straight into the facility. It would be a quick mission of get in, get out, and as Dream had put it  _ take no prisoners, and leave no witnesses _ . He was following the pale man through the portal, and into the sterile air of a laboratory. The white washed walls reeked of chemicals, and cleanliness, the illuminance from the lights was cold and metallic-feeling. He pulled his dark hood up as his group split. He knew the building like the back of his hand. Hopefully if he went about it right, no humans would die, or at least the casualties could be kept to a minimum. Of course, that's not what happened. 

Barely ten minutes into the operation, and a deafening alarm blasted through his ears, which he and several other demons quickly raced to cover them with the screech. A lockdown was initiated, and the humans were panicked. Someone had set off the alarm. Bad didn't know who, or what, had set the alarms, but that's what planning was for. His team was scattered now, all within their own assignments. Everything happened so fast, it was as if time itself had sped up and blurred together. The wails of the sirens were numbed and quieted by the cries of humans. It was a bloody fight into the containment unit, and several dead corpses were littered at the scientists stations. Halo was heaving, and there was a warm body pinned beneath him. 

If he could just act the part, the man wouldn't have to die. The man beneath him had glasses that had cracked in one lense, and brown eyes wild with what one could only describe as pure terror. He was wearing an ivory white lab coat, and had a book he'd been desperately trying to protect. Halo was just about to lift the axe, and let him go. He wanted to free the human, but someone's gaze locked him in place. He glanced sideways seeing Dream lurking at the edges of the room now bathed in red light. His form melted into the shadows, but those eyes. Those eyes were unmistakable. Boring into his very skin, and commanding him to end the human. His voice carried and Dream spoke without his mouth moving.

_ Kill him _ .

His hands trembled on the hilt. He didn't want to kill, that wasn't like him, he had no intention of hurting anyone. But, he also knew in this moment it was this scientist, or his life. He swallowed thickly, as he watched the man violently shake beneath him. He closed his eyes, he could sense the man beneath his claws. Pinned inches from the axe. 

"May the End Stars bless your soul." He murmured softly, the English feeling strange and heavy in his chest. 

He tensed, raising the axe, no longer able to look at the human in the eye, and in a swift blow of crunching bone, and the taste of copper, he brought the weapon down. He tried to hide the flinch as blood spattered on his coat, and on his face, and on his hands. He had never hated copper more than in that moment. The stygian axe buried deep into the scientists chest, and blood was quickly spreading through his clothing. He wanted to know the man's name. _Dr. Bright_. He noted the name, and gingerly swiped the leather bound book the man had so painstakingly tried to defend. He swallowed the bile in his throat and threatening to spill his stomachs contents onto the floor. He felt a cold hand rest upon his shoulder, and it made him shudder from the sheer temperature difference. Dream was at his side, a proud smile on his face as he looked down at the now corpse of a scientist. 

"Well done Halo." 

No, it was horrid, it was awful, it was so incredibly _wrong_. He wanted to be sick, he probably was going to be sick, 

"Schlatt will be proud of you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for back to back short chapters lol, but hopefully this one is enough to stave y'all over. Whatcha think of the lore that I've now started to be able to build? Any thoughts or theories?
> 
> Also! Our Discord! https://discord.gg/4KQYZ9t


	8. Hello My Old Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, oh, don't leave me here alone  
> Don't tell me that we've grown  
> For having loved a little while  
> Oh, oh, I don't wanna be alone  
> I wanna find a home  
> And I wanna share it with you  
> Hello, my old heart  
> It's been so long  
> Since I've given you away  
> And every day, I add another stone  
> To the walls I built around you  
> To keep you safe

Skeppy frowned slightly as he watched Halo, who was just staring down at the book and note. The demon was just staring down, his fingers twitched and his hands were trembling. Skeppy leaned forward, putting a tanned hand on the boy, who froze and his shoulders were trembling, a few choked sobs escaping him. 

“Halo?” He asked gently, trying to pull him back to reality, “Hey, hey I’m right here buddy.” 

Halo slowly looked up, his pale eyes were brimming with tears as he looked up and sniffled slightly. His lip trembled a bit, but no words came out, and he shook his head, pulling his hands away and into his lap. He rubbed his eyes, which faded back to green and adjusted his glasses. 

“I- I’m sorry Skeppy.. . .I need a minute.”

He had a feeling the demon probably would be better talking about it, sharing whatever trauma was plaguing him and his memories, but he also had only known Halo for a few days at this point, and didn’t want to cross any boundaries before they could even be set. He reluctantly let the demon leave, who just walked into the living room, and put his head in his hands. 

\-----------------

Nearly two weeks had passed since he first met his demon friend Halo. He was currently back at school, which he at first had been nervous to return to knowing one of his own classmates was probably a demon, and if Eret was one, who knows who else could be another unworldly being hiding away in human skin. 

That sounded creepy. 

He was sitting in an English class, only half paying attention to the lecture and explanation of the book they were supposed to be reading,  _ Heart of Darkness _ , which personally he couldn’t care less about. His mind wandered from the lesson, and he found himself thinking about the little demon boy back at his apartment. His headspace was completely distracted in a matter of moments. 

How he had freckles, even as a little sooty demon, and they covered his nose like a smattering of color, ans how even when he wouldn’t need them, he’d wear the red and brown glasses, which when he grinned, or tilted his head, would fall crooked on his face. He found himself doodling the boy in the margins of his notes, and along the sides of his notebooks. His little rounded horns and tail that would wag with his laughter, or droop. It was honestly amazing the amount of expression he had with something that was so simple. He couldn’t help but smile to himself as his mind replayed his quiet giggle when he was sheepish to find something funny, or how he’d laugh with Skeppy once he started to understand television. 

Or how about his fascination with the modern world, it was child-like and pure, and he would sit excitedly and listen as Skeppy would explain things that to him were so minute and simple, like microwaves, smart phones, and his favorite thing; video games. Bad had easily become engrossed in just about every video game that wasn’t violent, and seemed to adore simple idle task style games. 

Of course, he only thought this much about the other, because he was a demon and new, surely right? I mean, if you found something new like that surely it would occupy your mind for several hours. Surely, surely it was just that, and nothing else. It wasn’t an adoration for him, and it most certainly was  _ not _ a crush. 

Something sharp jabbed his leg and he was rather rudely jerked back to reality. He glared at the boy sitting next to him, who had kicked him for some unknown reason. It was his friend, Fundy, who he had known for several months by now. The boy was dressed a bit overly nicely for school, wearing a semi fancy style coat, and wore a hat almost always. He also had fiery orange hair that Skeppy figured was dyed, but the color had never changed or faded in the time he had known the other. Fundy jerked his head to the teacher, who was sitting with folded arms and frowning at him. 

“W-what was the question Mr, Moores?” He asked hesitantly. 

His teacher sighed deeply, the kind of sigh that wasn’t really needed, and was obviously a  _ we all know you weren’t paying attention but I’m still disappointed _ sigh. “For the fourth time, what do you think the main theme of Heart of Darkness was?” 

The boy frowned fishing for some bull answer he could give, Fundy ever to his rescue leaned over and whispered softly and discreetly, so he perked up, “The. . .the theme is the Hypocrisy of Imperialism.” He repeated back. 

The man raised an eyebrow, and sighed again, it was something the man was famous for, both boring classes, and dramatic sighs. Perhaps he could enter in the competition for ‘most disappointed sighs in one hour’. But Mr. Moores seemed satisfied with the answer, so he moved on, and continued with the lecture about how _ Heart of Darkness  _ explored the issues surrounding imperialism in complicated ways. Skeppy went back to tuning it out, and letting his mind spiral back down the rabbit hole of Halo. 

Thank goodness for Fundy kicking him back to reality, and giving him an answer to the question since heavens knew he hadn’t been paying attention. He was idly drawing a little cartoonish blob version of the demon, with his tail wagging out behind him, he wasn’t a very good artist when it came to people, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. He was in the middle of drawing the red stripes with his pen when Fundy leaned over, and prodded him again. 

He stifled a sharp gasp as he was poked with the sharpened end of a pencil, and he turned to glare again at the fire haired boy, “What?” He hissed. The teacher wasn’t talking anymore. 

“We’re supposed to be discussing our predictions for the next three chapters, but I’m guessing you haven’t read it at all, and I’ve read the entire thing so.” Fundy leaned back on his seat, tilting it backwards, “What do you wanna talk about?” 

He huffed, and folded his arms covering his doodles, “I have to read it!” 

Fundy raised an eyebrow, and Skeppy sighed, “Okay I listened to like. ..the first chapter on audiobook.” 

“Uh huh, so whatcha got there?” 

Skeppy kept his arms over the sketch book, “Just stupid doodles.” 

“Stupid huh? Then can I see them?” Fundy grinned as he tried to steal the book. 

It became a slight battle before Fundy easily snatched it away, the boy was shockingly agile and fast, so it wasn’t much of a battle really. He grinned as he looked over the lack of notes and instead the abundance of sketches and blobs of Halo. The boy was laughing a little and snickered as he finally handed it back. 

“You’re drawing a bunch of little rain boys?” He joked. 

Skeppy paused, frowning a little in confusion, “Rain?” 

Fundy shrugged, “He smells like rain, Halo I mean. Rain, sea salt and old books.” 

Skeppy just had an increase in confusion. He had avoided talking about Halo at school, but had he really mentioned it to Fundy? Even so, Skeppy didn’t know Bad smelled like rain, or sea salt, or old books. . .what did those things even smell like? He just nodded simply going with the comment. 

“Uh yeah, just bored in this class.” 

The other seemed so nonchalant, probably not realizing whatever slip up he had made, “For simple little sketches they look good.” 

“Thanks, I guess?” Skeppy’s brow furrowed, “Do you and Halo know each other? I didn’t think I really talked about him much in this class.” 

If it was possible, Fundy’s face, and hair seemed to fade in color, his face growing pale suddenly, and he adjusted his hat, “Uh.” He coughed clearing his throat, “Yeah, he and I are old friends you could say.”

“That’s uh. ..that’s cool I guess. Although saying what he smells like is kinda weird not going to lie.” 

He laughed awkwardly, “Yeah. .I realize that sounds pretty weird, but I bet if you asked him about me he’d say something similar, it’s an inside joke.” 

He just nodded, trying to rationalize it in his mind. He was  _ certain _ he hadn’t talked to anyone about Halo other than Finn and Spifey, maybe they told Fundy about him? But even so, he had quickly recognized it in the drawings, and hadn’t questioned the demon version of any of his doodles. Fundy had to be a demon. He had to be. 

“Fundy?” 

“Yeah?” He looked up cocking his head slightly. 

No use dancing around the bush, “Are you a demon?” He kept his voice quiet and low, but Fundy stiffened and froze. 

“What kind of question is that?” He gave a nervous laugh, “That’s so ridiculous, demons.” 

“Fundy. I’m being serious.” 

“No, no, not at all, what even made you think that?” His voice even sounded nervous. 

“I think that because you know Halo, and I’ve never once mentioned him.” He said seriously, “And you didn’t even question my demon drawings of him either.” 

Like a dog caught in the act of breaking rules, he looked away quietly, saying nothing as he drummed his fingers on the desk for a few minutes. Skeppy sat patiently, before asking quietly. 

“Are you?” 

A slow nod. 

“It’s alright, I.. .I mean I’m shocked, I’ve known you for several months, and never had a clue but… how did you so easily pick up on Halo?” 

Fundy paused and chewed his lip for a moment before talking, “I recognized his scent on you a couple weeks ago. I didn’t really think much at first, but then it was always there, so I know he’s around you, and it was a slip up.” 

“Demons can scent each other?” 

“Yeah, all of us kinda have a scent. . .that sounds weird hearing you say it though.” Fundy rubbed the back of his head, “But uh - yeah humans and demons have a pretty distinct difference, so when you as a human start carrying around a demon’s scent, it was weird.”

“So you’ve known this whole time?” 

“Yeah, and Halo probably knows that you’ve been around a few of us at your school too.” 

“Wait what?! How many of you guys are here.” 

“I shouldn’t have said that.” Fundy huffed shifting to face away from Skeppy, “I should not have said that.” 

“No no, Halo talked to me a little, he said he. .he knew an Eret?” Skeppy quickly backtracked, he was being sucked deeper into the world of these demons, and curiosity may be his downfall. 

“Eret? Oh. .yeah he told me about that. The whole book incident.” 

He thought back to when he had first come back to school after meeting Halo, and the other’s sudden and brief confusion once he sat down that was seemingly out of place. He had wrinkled his nose, and studied Skeppy for a minute before the expression had vanished. If Eret was in fact a demon, which Fundy just confirmed for him, he must’ve caught Halo’s scent on him and had been confused. 

“Were they upset about that?” Skeppy asked hesitantly. 

The other shook his head, “No, I mean. . .they were for a little bit, since that brought up some pretty bad trauma for them, but he wasn't mad at you or anything.” Fundy explained. 

He sighed with a bit of relief and relaxed, “That’s good to know.” 

“So. . .Halo and you, are you two like. . .?” 

He frowned looking at Fundy in confusion, “Like what? What are you asking?” 

“I mean, he’s clearly living with you, cuz you reek of him, and obviously you’re not holding him hostage or anything.” Fundy shrugged nonchalantly. 

“How do you know I’m not.” 

Fundy looked at him dubiously, before laughing, which sounded a little like a fox giggle, “Well one, I know you better than that, and secondly a demon is different when they’re distressed. While I know Halo, I’ve known him for more years than this school has been standing. So. . .I know you aren’t.” 

Skeppy flushed a bit, “That doesn’t answer my first question though.” 

Fundy paused, thinking back with a brief frown, but perked up again, “Ooh! Like, are you two a thing or something? Like dating?” 

That made his face burn even more, and he frantically shook his head, “No! No no. It’s nothing like that at all! He’s just staying with me for a bit to be safe.”

Fundy raised an eyebrow, and seemed to study Skeppy for a long minute with a sly grin, but nodded, clearly not believing him, “Yeah, just staying with you. So you’re roommates?” 

“I. . .I don’t know?” 

“Is he living with you?” 

“I mean yeah, but - “

“And you share a house?” 

“Sure, but -”

“Then you’re roommates.” Fundy dismissed simply, “It’s not that complicated.”

Skeppy stammered a bit, but was at a loss for words, and he huffed, folding his arms across his chest and sitting back in his chair. He was quiet for a few minutes, and Fundy shrugged beside him and shrugged a little, and didn’t push the subject. A few awkward minutes passed between the two of them before the human boy had the courage to break it again. 

“So. . .how many of you guys are demons in this school?” 

Fundy was leaning his chair against the wall behind him, and had one eye closed, which he cracked open to glance at Skeppy, and he didn’t miss the brief moment in which they were a midnight void instead of a normal eye, “I can’t tell you that.” Was his answer. 

He frowned, half expecting the answer, but still a bit disappointed with the answer, “Why not?” 

Fundy sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes, and possibly competing with Mr. Moores for deepest dramatic sigh, “Because, just as you have obligations to your higher ups, so do I, and well, I’d rather not lose my fur because I exposed Nether secrets to a human.” 

He didn’t miss the ‘fur’ comment either, it was something Fundy had said a lot before, but only now it made more sense, “Oh.” It was all he could give for an answer. 

The rest of the class passed in relative silence, he wasn’t able to really start any proper conversation again after the first topic, and the two of them were left to their own devices for the remaining twenty minutes of the ninety minute class. Once the bell buzzed in the halls, he quickly packed up for the afternoon, and began walking home. Despite the fall chill, it was a relatively warm day, and the sun was high and the sky was mostly empty. He almost missed the rain that had been sprinkled throughout the first week with Halo, he loved seeing the pure enjoyment of the demon out in the rain. He thought of what Halo had told him on day one.  _ You smell like -  _ but he had been cut off before the boy could explain anything. He briefly wondered if Bad knew he smelled of something he loved so dearly. 

He had a warm smile as he walked home, and it was certainly not because he was lovesick. Halo was watching TV when he came home, tail tip twitching behind him as he watched the glowing screen with interest. He laughed softly, and hung his backpack up, but he felt exhausted. Finals were after his sleep schedule, and he was exhausted, he could take a short nap before dinner. He couldn’t help but think of the demon in the other room, and his sweetness. No it wasn’t possible, he was not lovesick. Bad was just a friend. He laid an arm across his face with a quiet groan. 

No

_ No _

No, there was no way he was crushing on a demon. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting to dip our toes into romance are we?? Blasphemy. AnYwAyS   
> Totally did *not* write this while being sappy bc I have a girlfriend who I love, and I still can't believe I have her. Nope. Lies I tell you. (Also nobody saw my Hamilton reference last chapter ;-; brownie points if you did)  
> Title of this Chap is the same as the name of the song lyrics lol  
> We dirty crime boys love ourselves an idiot in denial don't we :3


	9. ITS A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY

The following morning had been peaceful and cool, the fall breeze keeping his apartment a bit chilly, but Halo didn’t seem to mind the low temperatures, and had trailed on the boy's heels as he got ready for school. He was shrugging on his backpack when a (perhaps dumb) idea popped in his mind. He smiled at Halo, who was hugging him goodbye (it was something Bad had started doing about a week ago, and he didn’t have the heart to refuse it) and gently pushed him off. 

“Do you wanna come with me today?” He offered standing in front of the doorway. 

Bad perked up and blinked his pale eyes, “Am. . . am I allowed to?” 

“I don’t see why not?” Skeppy shrugged trying not to laugh, “I mean you’re an adult, the worst that can happen is them telling you to go home, but my history teacher doesn’t give a shit, and neither does my maths teacher. I dunno about my construction engineering class though.” 

Bad smacked him lightly on the arm, “Language muffin! But. . .maybe just this once, I can see what college is like!” 

Skeppy nodded, and Bad grinned beaming wide as he shifted to his human form. His blond hair was brushed and fell in long bangs around his green eyes now framed with his glasses. He was still wearing the dark cloak that hung loosely on the demon’s small frame. The red stripes matched his red rimmed glasses as well. Skeppy felt warmth rushing to his face as he realized he was staring, and quickly cleared his throat, before gesturing for Halo to follow him. 

The pair walked the short path to his college mostly in silence, Halo was constantly looking around, and would excitedly tug on Skeppy’s sleeve every time they walked past a person walking their dog, which was only three, but it was still sweet. He smiled warmly as the two of them approached campus, and the other was just looking around. They had decided that the excuse for Halo being here was being a transfer student, and was needing help getting to know the campus before starting his courses. It was lame sure, but hopefully if anyone asked it would work well enough. 

Just as the human had predicted, his history teacher didn’t ask any questions of the new student, instead giving almost all of class time to work on their projects since they were due in a week. When he plopped down into his seat with Eret on his left, and Halo on his right, Eret instantly perked up, and looked between the human and the demon. They reached up, almost as if they were going to pull their sunglasses off, but stopped before whispering softly. 

“Halo?!” Eret leaned over, and like a startled hamster he turned to look back at Eret. 

“ Wh- How - “ Halo paused before his face broke into his sweet fanged grin, “Wait, it’s you Eret!” 

The two of them hit it off like old friends within a matter of minutes, which they probably were old friends. Most of their project was done, so Skeppy didn’t mind the more lax work period, and found himself eavesdropping on their conversation during which the two had swapped seats. So now Halo was between Eret and him instead, and he watched as the blond excitedly talked, gesturing with his hands. He turned his attention away from his phone briefly to listen to them, but frowned. Neither one of them were speaking English, both excitedly talking in a language that was so foreign he was certain he had never heard it before. 

“ᔑリ↸ リ𝙹∴ ᑑ⚍ᔑᓵꖌ╎ℸ ̣ ||, ||𝙹⚍∷ ᔑ!¡!¡∷ᒷリℸ ̣ ╎ᓵᒷ? ||ᒷᔑ⍑ ⍑ᒷ'ᓭ 𝙹リ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ⊣⚍ᔑ∷↸ リ𝙹∴!” Halo gestured with his hands as he spoke, and Eret had a soft smile on his face listening. 

“╎'ᒲ !¡∷𝙹⚍↸ 𝙹⎓ ⍑╎ᒲ, ⍑ᒷ ∴ᔑᓭ ᔑ ⊣𝙹𝙹↸ ꖌ╎↸. ╎ ʖᒷℸ ̣ ⎓⚍リ↸|| ∴𝙹⚍ꖎ↸ ʖᒷ ⍑ᔑ!¡!¡|| ℸ ̣ 𝙹.” Eret nodded. “⍑ᒷ'ᓭ ᓭℸ ̣ ╎ꖎꖎ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ 𝙹リ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓭ⚍∷⎓ᔑᓵᒷ ʖ|| ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∴ᔑ||, ⍑ᒷ ᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ᒷリ↸ᓭ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ᓵ𝙹ꖎꖎᒷ⊣ᒷ.” 

Halo’s whole face lit up, and he excitedly turned from Eret and his strange conversation to Skeppy. “Did you know that?!” 

Skeppy shook his head, “I didn’t understand a single word of what you two just said.” He had worked on cleaning up his language around the other. 

Bad paused, “Oh uh. .sorry, did you know Fundy attends here?” 

Skeppy smiled a little, and nodded. “Yeah, he and I talked the other day about it, he said you smelled like old books by the way.” 

“Really? Well if we see him today I reserve the right to tell him he smells like a cat.” Bad wrinkled his nose with a giggle. 

Eret snorted beside him, laughing with his usual deep laugh, and shaking his head slightly. Skeppy couldn’t help but smile and join into both of their laughter. The tension that had arisen between him and Eret seemed to dissipate with the hour, and he enjoyed the time the three spent together. By the time his next class period was rolling around, he felt relaxed and warm from seeing Halo become so happy and chatty with someone. Even if he kinda wished he was able to talk with Halo like that, and that Halo would give him that sort of attention. No, no he wasn’t jealous, not at all. 

As they walked the halls towards his engineering class, they ran into Tommy and Tubbo. Both were fairly young, and from Europe, having apparently graduated high school early, and the two boys were practically attached at the hip. Aside from maybe if they didn’t share classes, he had never seen the two apart for any length of time. Tommy grinned and waved to Skeppy as he fell in step beside the tanned boy. 

“Heya Skep.” He greeted, holding the straps of his backpack on his back. 

Tommy was fairly tall, taller than Skeppy at least, probably a few inches above 6ft tall. His hair was a sandy blond and was messy in an intentional way. He wore t-shirts, and simple fun logo t-shirts most of the time. As well as dark jeans, sometimes with holes on the knees, sometimes not. His grin was devilish, and something that most people would peg as belonging to a mischief maker, even with his braces. His eyes were also an electric blue, and it wasn’t uncommon for the boy to be wearing a red bandana around his neck. His partner in crime was Tubbo. Well his actual name was Toby, but he usually went by Tubbo, and preferred that over his actual name. 

Tubbo was significantly shorter than his blond companion, a few inches shorter than Bad even in his human form. He wore a green t-shirt, and always seemed to have something green on if it wasn’t his shirt, a green bandana to match Tommy, a green tie when dressed nicely, green socks. Green just fit the brunette. He often wore cargo shorts or khakis, and was one person you could always ask for a pencil from. The pair of them were usually trailed by Tommy’s older not-actually-brother-but-still-like-one Wilbur, but the older boy was nowhere in sight. 

“Hey Tommy, hey Tubbo! Where’s Wilbur?” Skeppy glanced at them returning the wave as the four of them walked along the halls. 

The two english boys exchanged a glance, and Tubbo shrugged, “He got an emergency call from work, so he’s not here today.” 

“Oh, well tell him to not overwork himself, he does a lot.” 

Tommy snorted, “As if he’d listen to us.” 

“Thats.. ..thats fair.” 

The trio fell into laughter with Bad cocking his head, brow furrowing in confusion, but saying nothing. They continued chatting about a mixture of school work, and actual work as they arrived at their construction class. Only to find themselves staring at an almost entirely empty classroom, and a substitute teacher sitting at the desk with a book in his hands. The four found seats near the back of the classroom, and Bad interrupted one of Tubbo’s bad puns with a question. 

“Where is everyone?” 

Tubbo glanced up from his laptop he had pulled from his bag, “Huh? Oh there was this big all day trip to some construction site of a tabernacle that burned down a few years back. Most of the class went, and our teacher was the one over it, so now we have a sub.” 

“A sub?” 

Tubbo gestured to the teacher who had jotted down the boy’s names as they entered, “A substitute teacher? But yeah, Mrs. Blaine, who is our normal teacher, said this was kinda a catch up period, which for us means a free for all as long as you’re caught up in assignments.” 

Skeppy was slightly tense from Bad asking what a sub was, since he was still adjusting to modern terms and slang. One thing he never thought he would need to explain is why and how to use the word  _ dude. _ But his demon buddy had proven that wrong; other things like phones, tv, and even doorbells had also all been things Halo had never heard of. The two boys on his side quickly were entirely invested in whatever it was they were doing on the laptop, and Halo was translating one of the galactic segments from Skeppy’s book into English. Tubbo glanced up. 

“Oh! Skeppy, I forgot to ask, what’s your friend's name?” 

“Oh, yeah, this is B-” 

Bad cut in smiling, “My name is Darryl.” 

Skeppy did his best to hide his sudden confusion, as Tubbo smiled, “Well nice to meet you Darryl. I’m Tubbo, and this is Tommy.” 

Once the two had their attention back on the screen, Skeppy leaned over, whispering softly, “Why did you tell them your name was Darryl?” 

Bad looked up, pausing a moment, before smiling softly, “That was. . .that’s my birth name. From before, I had forgotten the English translation.” 

“Do you want me to call you Darryl instead?” 

“No,” Bad shook his head. “I am still more used to that name, it’s just less weird to humans.” 

Skeppy nodded quietly as all of them went back to their respective tasks they were enjoying and working on. Skeppy was sketching a new escape room idea and Bad was taking apart the pen he had been given, and putting it back together since he seemingly had finished the translation. The classroom was fairly quiet, with the quiet murmur of a few conversations, but it was peaceful. This didn’t last however, as Tommy leapt to his feet, and pumped a fist in the air as the chair he’d been sitting on was knocked over. 

“YES!” 

Several ‘shhs’ followed the exclamation, and Tubbo was waving for him to sit back down, even though he seemed to be sharing the same gleeful expression as the blond. Bad had squeaked quietly, and dropped the pen spilling the ink on the page, which he whined softly at. Thankfully it was only a little as he picked it up quickly. Skeppy looked up from his own sketchbook, and leaned over towards them. 

“What’cha got there?” He asked, trying to see the screen that Tubbo was clicking through. 

Tubbo paused, still grinning, but pulled the laptop close, “Okay okay, first, both of you have to promise to keep quiet about this though okay?” 

Both Skeppy and Halo nodded and Tubbo continued. “So me and Tommy have been working on what we’ve called a black box for almost a month. We found it tucked away in a really old governmental archives website. The thing was so encrypted and buried, so we tried to dig up what it had. So what we have here is - “ 

“A GIANT FUCKING COVER UP!” Tommy cut in as he scooted his seat forward, the metal creak rivaling his loud shout. A few more shushes made their way around the room. 

“Ack! Language!” Bad hissed. 

Tommy rolled his eyes but was still beaming, “We finally managed to get a lead, and now we have the first document decrypted.” He turned the screen towards Skeppy and Halo. 

On screen was a white document, with some scrambled words marked out on it, and in the top right was a set of numbers in a little dark window, and every so many seconds, a new set appeared, he recognized it as a computer IP in the corner. In the bottom left was some other program running, with code scrolling down continuously on it, it looked gibberish to him, but the longer the code on the left ran, the less scrambled words and data on the document there was. Tubbo and Tommy shifted the computer so now all four of them were crowded around the little laptop, with Tubbo using a mouse somewhat awkwardly from his seat to scroll through it. 

“This whole thing, it’s like it's been erased from history. We’ve had some names, which is how we found this document, but like. . the people named in it, the building, all of it. It’s like it’s been entirely erased!” Tommy nodded as Tubbo scrolled. 

Tubbo continued, “We found the black box under the title Abraxas Industries. The thing was linked back to the government back in the late 1800’s and early early 1900’s. But then it just seems to vanish. No articles on it closing, or even what it was for. So me and Tommy did some digging, and look at this thing!” 

Skeppy began reading through the document. It looked so official, any dispute he may have had died on his tongue. Halo was leaning in trying to see it better as well beside him. 

**Incident Response Log 42-A**

**Research Facility EV-904**

**PROJECT: DeVries**

**CODE NAME: “Abraxas Industries”**

_ 76 Scientists, Soldiers, Armed Guards, and Facility Caretakers found dead. 0 Survivors, 0 documented off site staff have been reported to date. - Aug 21, 2004 _

**Incident Log 42-A**

Lockdown was initiated by an unknown facilitator estimated to be 19 hours before two investigative teams from Underground Faction-E were sent, with S.W.AT. as an escort. It is unknown exact time of lockdown initiation due to several core centrifuges being destroyed, and any handwritten documentation has been lost. There was nothing documented between  Nov 14, 1903 to  Nov 15, 1903 . Retrieval teams EV-1 EV-2 were sent for further investigation after 14 hours of radio silence from the main station. The usual continuous communication every 5-6 hours between EV-904 and a3nmfbs was cut and the last sent message was the usual check in at 07:00 Nov 14, 1903. 

Upon investigation, the entire facility was shut down, with every lockdown protocol followed. Zero response from inner staff resulted in the need to solder through the main gate. Emergency generator lights were still functioning and operational. Alarms and sirens were either not initiated, or were silenced at some point after the lockdown. Reports from on site armed guards claim there was no sign of exit or entry from the facility after the lockdown. No alarms were triggered, and the few they did pass were flashing as if activated, but there was no sound. Several in person accounts claim the same situation in the alarm system. 

**EV-1 Report:** EV-1 was sent to inspect the main containment unit. It has been documented that asdhsdghaldhgj was contained within the facility, which led to the funds increase in security listed in Abraxus Report: DevRies - asdferf. The containment unit asjksdfjkl inspection showed its decontamination doors, and airlocks had all been completely destroyed. Four bodies were found at the doorways to the only entrance to the unit. All four appeared to be mauled, and were unidentifiable other than their persons ID. Containment unit has been found empty, and untouched. Seven scientists suffered the same fate, all cadavers were found undisturbed at their respective stations.

Cause of Death: Under Investigation. 

Revision: Cause of Death: Unknown

**EV-2 Report:** Inspection into the lower balcony and observation room lead to the devastating discovery of the bodies of the lead scientists that were known to be running and operating the facility, as well as their hired staff, and like minded peers. Every corpse documented in both the balconies A and B, with the exceptions of Dr. Bright and Dr. Davidson, seems to have been murdered. Every staff member's necks were slit open and early stages of decay were evident in them. No weapon has been located upon documentation - Jan 19, 1974

Dr. Bright’s body was found with the chest caved in, numerous broken ribs, a shattered sternum, and a lacerated diaphragm. Multiple large lacerations extended across his chest and upper abdomen. Each wound was very clean and estimated to be between 7-12 inches in length. Depth of each laceration varies, cause of these injuries are unknown, but they are suspected to be his cause of death. His body was also one of the few cadavers not found at or near their respective assigned stations. He was in the center of the main observatory, and likely had suffered numerous other trauma based injuries before dying. 

Cause of Death: Murder, no weapon or suspects found. 

Dr. Davidson’s body has yet to be found with early inspections of the facility. 

REVISION : As of February 21, 1917, Dr. Davidson is considered missing, suspected dead. 

REVISION: July 7, 1979, Dr. Davidson’s remains were never found, and the case is being closed and Dr. Davidson is assumed to have died alongside his other staff members. 

All Staff with family have had their relatives alerted, contacted, and compensated proportionately for the staff members. Precautions have been initiated to keep these deaths, and projects DeVries, and Abraxus top secret. 

MISSING PERSONS AND ITEMS: As of Oct 08, 1920, all objects, items, possessions, and staff that were on site the date of the incident have been accounted for, and returned with the exception of Dr. Davidson's remains and Dr. Bright’s personal journal and its documentations. Nothing was stolen or destroyed other than locks, alarms, and some lights. Electric systems were not sabotaged. It is unknown why the journal was stolen. We suspect Dr. Davidson was either subject to the same slaughter as his peers, or has since escaped and is in hiding. 

REVISION : Dr. Davidson’s coat was found on the premises on March 13, 1995. The cloth was in keen condition and had little to no signs of time erosion, damage, or other expected signs of wear and time decay of a cloth. Leading many to believe it was deliberately placed there, but nobody knows where it came from, or why. At first it was suspected to be a prank, but looking back on records of Dr. Davidson, he had his name embroidered in blue on the left breast pocket, and he had personally added another hand created cross stitch on the inner right collar with the nick of ‘Gogy’. Both of these were found with equal wear on the coat, with no dispute it belonged to Dr. Davidson. This has reopened the case as to what happened to the missing lead scientist.

Skeppy frowned as he looked away from the screen finally as they all finished reading the document, and he felt Halo suck in a quiet breath. Tommy perked up, Tubbo was still reading it, and some part of his mind was distantly reminded that Tubbo has dyslexia. Tommy was shaking Skeppy’s shoulder though. 

“Wait wait! Dr. Bright!” He spoke hurriedly and excitedly. “Isn’t that the same name on your weird monster journal thing?” 

He nodded, Halo handed him the journal, and he turned over the cover to the title on it. Sure enough  _ A Documentation by Dr. Bright _ was written on the bottom corner. He couldn’t help but frown a bit, and flicked to the last of the yellowing pages. Sure enough the last of the entries almost perfectly aligned with the dates on the document. With the very last entry being marked as Nov 13, 1903. But if this was the missing journal, surely there would’ve been a huge effort in retrieving the book and locating it. Yet, here Skeppy sat, just some college student with no special permissions or anything else. He tried to think back to when his mother had given it to him, saying she had found it in a second hand shop and dismissed his question. Had she lied to him? Even if she hadn’t,  _ surely _ someone would’ve noted the book being somewhere in the public, since the case file still seemed recently edited and attended to. With the last edit date being written as 2004. He set the book down, and looked to Halo for any sort of answer, and was met with silence. Bad had turned away from the screen, and gone back to his now ruined pen. Skeppy could see his fidgeting hands, and his bouncing leg. This facility had been the subject to the attack hadn’t it? The undisclosed experiments were on demons, they were probably trying to open a portal to the nether. This was the slaughter that he had claimed was his fault. A small part of him wondered if Halo had actually harmed anyone in it, and if he had, was it intentional? Did he want to hurt people? Had he been lied to? 

“There’s body pictures!” Tommy grinned, clicking something as Tubbo frantically fought for the mouse back. “Holy shit!” 

“Tommy! Give that back!” Tubbo retorted, but Tommy just took the mouse and held it above his head, well out of the other’s reach. 

Neither seemed to notice Bad’s sudden mood shift and silence. But Skeppy had, and he wanted to ask, he wanted to prod further into this mystery. He wanted to know everything about this in some sort of twisted curiosity. He couldn’t help but glance at the supposed images. He found himself staring at a ruined room. No, ruined was a generous statement. 

The glass that seemed to look into another room had been shattered and was in shards on the floor, and even the splinters that were still clinging to the metal frames were spiderwebbed and jagged as if smashed inwards. Several forms were covered with a white blanket all slumped over what looked like old machinery. White diodes were lit up on panels unattended to. Dark spots littered the entire image, since it was in greyscale, they weren’t red, but he knew they were blood splatters. He forced himself to look away as his eyes trailed to the center of the image; where there was another uncovered corpse. He pulled his gaze away and turned it back to his sketch. He wanted to look, but at the same time, didn’t want that image stained anymore into his brain. 

Tubbo took the computer back and was arguing quietly with Tommy for the mouse back still. Skeppy risked another glance over at the disguised demon, and he saw Bad also keeping his gaze low. Focused on his hands, he was shakily pulling the pen apart for the dozenth time. He saw his green eyes flick sideways for a moment, before wincing and looking back down at the table. He mumbled softly. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Skeppy glanced at the two boys, who seemed engrossed in their fight, “What for?” 

“For. . .for what I did. For lying to you.” 

“I.. .I’m shocked, I won’t lie, but it’s okay. That was a really long time ago, and plus you even said you didn’t want to do it right?” 

Bad nodded slowly, “But. . .I. . .I wanted to hate killing him. I really did.” His voice became a hoarse whisper that sounded bordering on tears, “But I couldn’t. I liked it, and I hated that I liked it.” 

Skeppy was quiet, uncertain what to say, so he just patted the other’s back lightly, falling into silence. He was being dragged further into this rabbit hole, and he wasn’t sure if he had fallen into Wonderland, or stumbled upon the end of everything he knew. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh I am not dead, sorry for not posting all week, been going through some stuff. Long chapter? Lore drops? New Characters!!!! PoG. 
> 
> I'm sorry I'm exhausted and have done literally 32 school assignments since Monday


	10. Tumultuous Trials

When they had been walking in the halls, and Halo had caught the scent of a demon lingering around the two exchange students, he had initially dismissed it as some other passer demon, or perhaps they had shared a class with one. But as he sat at the table and that scent was still present, he was set on edge. It’s hard to exactly define the scent that all demons carry, but it was a rough and bitter scent, the only descriptor that came to mind is heat, or heated stones. It wasn’t terribly strong like it had been around Eret, but it was definitely there. Clinging to the two boys like a nettle in their fabrics, and hung around regardless of the time passage. Halo had quietly been watching Tommy in particular, who it seemed had the stronger aura around him. But, so far, he seemed perfectly normal, just a relaxed teenage boy, who had currently just dragged him back through old memories kicking and screaming. 

If guilt was physical, it was tearing apart his body and heart, all while keeping his throat tight, and voice hoarse. ““But I couldn’t. I liked it, and I hated that I liked it.” He managed to choke out quietly. 

Skeppy was silent for a long moment, and he braced for a reaction, for screaming, to be hit.  _ Something. Anything but that horrible silence. _ He couldn’t lie to the human, looking back and recalling the memory, he always imagined himself getting sick, being just as disgusted with his actions as he was with himself. But, that wasn’t reality and he hadn’t been sick. Dr. Bright had died with a single blow, he made sure of it, but - 

No he shook the memory away it was in the past, he was better than that. Wasn’t he? 

“That. . .that was a really long time ago, and you. . .you clearly don't like what happened.” Skeppy finally said softly, rubbing his back lightly. 

Halo pursed his lips, unsure whether his voice would betray just how close he was to tears, “Thank you.” 

“Plus, people can change right? I mean. . .everyone does bad things, and you even told me that you were forced onto that mission, and I’m guessing you were forced to. . .hurt too.” Green eyes pierced Halo’s skull in a phantom memory as Skeppy continued, “You don’t seem like a  _ bad _ person Bad. I mean it.” 

He just nodded, he couldn’t bring himself to speak again, his throat felt tight, so he let the silence settle over the two of them as Tommy and Tubbo seemed to resolve whatever argument they had been having. Gathered back around the screen intent on its contents like bees around a flower. He didn’t care about what the document said, and he certainly did not want to see those images again, they were seared enough into his memory, except unlike still and sepia toned photographs, he hand the sounds, the sirens with them. Not a still cold picture, but a real environment, and real things, and real people. Which often tended to be lost when you were an outsider, looking in through the glass of imagery. 

“Wait wait,” Tubbo’s voice was soft, as he pointed to something on the screen, “Look at this Tommy!” 

Halo glanced over to see the blond perking and looking at whatever it was, Tubbo was tracing something probably in the image with his finger, “What does that look like?” Tubbo asked him, glancing over at the blue eyed boy. 

He leaned over, trying to peer over their shoulders, to what Tubbo had outlined on the screen, it took a few moments of him studying the image where Tubbo had traced it again, but then pulled his hand away. It was a few names lightly scrawled on the scanned image, faded ink barely visible against the gruesome scene it captured. 

There were several names that he didn’t recognize at all, but Tubbo was grinning, “Dude! This is so cool! I’m going to show Wilbur this as soon as he’s back, this is what you were talking about a few weeks ago isn’t it?!” Tommy was nodding. 

A few minutes passed with a tense silence, and he kept his head down, not talking with Skeppy, let alone the two boys he didn’t know very well. Finally, by some holy grace the dismissal bell rang, and Skeppy slung his bag over his back, and waited for his friends at the door. Tommy and Tubbo fell in step beside them, and now with Tommy directly at his side, with a mostly empty hallway around them, the distinct scent of  _ demon _ clung to the blond with braces. Halo tried to put words to them, cedar and woodsmoke. It was a sweet scent, with a very warmth-like feeling, and Halo tensed, if Tommy was a demon, then surely he would’ve picked up on Bad right? But Tommy had barely given him a second glance, and hadn’t questioned Bad, or tried to pull him aside, or anything else. 

The two boy’s must’ve shared Skeppy’s next class because they trailed behind the entire route through the building, and now into the classroom. A few seconds before the bell was set to ring, a fifth boy ran in, breathless and scruffy looking as he plopped into the seat next to Bad.

He was tall, pale, and lanky looking. He was probably the tallest of the group around, and he settled into his seat, with his long brown overcoat hanging loosely on his thin frame. He had a pair of rounded glasses perched on his face, and a scar that seemed to run just above the tip of his nose. His hair was curly and slightly in his eyes, brushed to one side and tucked under a black beanie, as well as a black shirt. He was wearing khakis, and red fingerless gloves. He glanced sideways at Halo, and grinned warmly to him. 

“Hello! You must be new to class.” He held a hand out to shake, the man also appeared older than Skeppy by a few years and had a distinct english accent as well, “My name is Wilbur.” 

Tommy shot up from his seat as he waved to Wilbur, “Will! You won’t believe what we found today!” 

Bad carefully shook Will’s hand, trying to not look startled by the others sudden outburst, “My name. . my name is Daryll. I’m a friend of Skeppy.” 

Wilbur’s hand was warm and firm as he shook his, and nodded, brushing some hair from his face, “It’s nice to meet you Daryll, perhaps when I’m not racing around you and I can get to know each other a bit better.” 

Skeppy perked up, “Finn, Spifey and I were heading to the diner this weekend, you guys could join us again!” 

Bad tensed slightly, “Finn and Spifey? Would they be ok with us going?” By  _ us _ he really meant him, since last time he and Finn had spoken, it was less than pleasant, and something he wanted to avoid to the best of his abilities.

Skeppy nodded, “I’ll text him.”

That was another thing Halo was having a hard time understanding properly, modern technology was just so advanced and baffling to him. He had barely seen glimpses of it when he was around back in the early 1900’s. Yet nowadays it wasn’t a far cry from magic to him (which was something he did understand). The bell buzzed above them, so he looked to the front of the classroom, which was empty still. Yet, before Bad could ask, the door was opened, and a tall young man strolled in. He was wearing more casual clothes, a simple black t-shirt with a shiny blue minecart on the chest. He was wearing jeans, and his brown hair was brushed back. 

“Good afternoon class!” The teacher grinned as a ‘good afternoon’ rattled out from the array of students, “So sorry for being late, Dr. Trayaurus’ car ended up stalling on the highway. But, I’m here now!” 

Skeppy leaned over and talked quietly, “That’s Mr. TDM, but you can call him Dan.” 

Bad nodded as the teacher continued, passing out a small packet of papers to each student as he walked between the layered rows of the classroom. “I hope you guys all brought your lab safety today, because we are going to be doing our gallium experiments, and if we still have time I’ll let you guys play with the potassium permanganate afterwards.” 

Bad listened, the words jumbled together and he wasn’t sure what any of what the teacher said meant. But he was interested regardless, as the teacher finished handing out the worksheet packets, he went back to the front of the room and clapped his hands together to get the students attention, and announced. 

“Alright, I hope you all have your lab partners, we’re heading down to Lab B!” He waved, and stood at the door as students began filtering out presumably towards the lab. 

As Tommy trailed at his side, Halo hesitated, letting the blond pass first as he watched Tommy for any indication of what he was almost certain of. Both of the boys were suspicious, but Tommy was more so, especially with Tubbo’s small comment. He followed on Skeppy’s heels into the lab, and took it all in. He couldn’t help but think back to the DeVries raid, but he tried to keep that out of his mind. He’d had enough trauma throwbacks to last him over a month. 

The class seemed to pass by in a blur, he wasn’t sure how, but he’d become lost in the experiment that was mostly done by Wilbur and Skeppy, who’d been his lab partners. Tommy had cackled maniacally as they finished their own lab early, and had proceeded to melt their salt sample over the small flame of a bunsen burner they were provided. While Mr. TDM hadn’t seemed  _ pleased _ , he also seemed to find it just as amusing as the teens had. The five of them were leaving the classroom, and splitting up, so it was just Bad and Skeppy once again, which he much preferred compared to the sterile air of the labs, and the overwhelming scent of Tommy. He much preferred the earthy woody scent of Skeppy. 

He was brought to the last class of the day, which was English. Bad honestly didn’t really understand why it was called ‘English’ when really it was all about literature over the actual English language, but he hadn’t bothered arguing. Skeppy settled into his seat as a familiar face grinned back at him. He rushed over enveloping his old mentor and best friend into a tight hug. 

“FUNDY!” He grinned as he squeezed his buddy. 

Fundy squeaked a bit like a fox as he was hugged out of the blue, but he returned it warmly to Bad, a soft rumbling laugh that sounded closer to a giggle coming from the taller of the two. It only took a moment before the red headed dutch had Bad in a noogie was he was ruffling Bad’s hair before letting him go. 

“It’s good to see you Halo.” He put his hands on Bad’s shoulders and he stood taller in pride. 

Fundy was always a bit like an older brother to him, the fox demon had filled a role in his life he hadn’t realized was missing originally. The two were close, and Fundy was very caring and almost fatherly in that manner, but he was also more than happy to get into trouble with Bad if he wanted to, and also had his own streak of trouble under his paws . .well hands. 

Throughout class, the pair were hushed more than once, talking like a pair of young teenagers with the latest gossip. Bad naturally fell into speaking galactic with the other, just as he had when speaking with Eret, and Fundy grinned as the pair exchanged a few jokes, and they talked. He hadn’t realized just how much easier galactic was for him compared to English nowadays until his latest conversations with demons after speaking only english continuously for a few weeks. They jumped from topic to topic as they spoke in quiet whispers, undeterred from the annoyed hushes from the teacher, and finally the bingo question came up.

“So what happened with your trial?” 

Bad tensed, in the last few weeks he’d almost entirely put that behind him in his mind. Fundy seemed to understand his silence and nodded. 

“I’m sorry - I should’ve been there for you.” 

Bad shook his head, putting a hand on his arm, “No, Fundy don’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault, none of what happened was. I actively avoided summons, and never actually fulfilled my duties, and I . .. you know I couldn’t do it, his face, his eyes - I couldn’t Fundy, his pleas still scare me. I can almost hear them.” 

Fundy wrapped an arm around him loosely, and patted his back in an attempt to comfort him, “I’m guessing that’s why you’re on the surface isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, the guard was sent after me.” 

“Yikes, which one?” 

Bad took a breath, “Battalion Image.” 

Fundy sucked in a breath, and if he was in his demon form, he was sure the fox would’ve had his hackles raised and tails bristling, “Image? What the hell? Why would - “ 

Bad didn’t even bother correcting the others' language, “I’m not. .I don’t know. But I ran, I wanted to make it to the bounds, but I couldn't. They chased me into the soul sand valley.” 

“Damn.” 

“I ended up getting run into the basalts, and in a last ditch effort I tried a portal, which worked, but I still feel so drained.” Bad glanced sideways at Skeppy who was doodling in his notebook, and continued knowing the human couldn’t understand him at the moment, “I worry, that . . .that I won’t be able to have any camo if I keep going like this.” 

“Halo that’s. ..you’re putting too much strain on your magic, have you just continuously used it?” 

Bad nodded sheepishly as Fundy looked concerned, “Halo you. . .why? How much?” 

“A few weeks I think, I don’t want to scare Skeppy with my form. Plus he gets jumpy when he’s sleepy, so.” 

“Don’t tell me you’ve kept your human camo in your sleep Bad.” Fundy looked at him warily, which he could only nod to. Which Fundy gripped his shoulders tightly, more worried than angry, “You can’t keep doing this Halo, you’ll drop if you do. Promise me,  _ promise me _ on the River Styx that you’ll stop for tonight?” 

Halo swallowed nervously, finally answering, “I. . .I will,” 

“Swear on Styx.” 

“I swear on the river Styx,” Halo said softly, and Fundy seemed to relax slightly as he spoke. 

They dropped the topic shortly afterwards, and Bad was left to his thoughts as their conversation teetered out with the end of class approaching. The final bell rang, and like a rupture in a pipe, student conversation leaked in from the halls, and surrounded the growing crowd of students as they left the classroom. Skeppy was careful to stick by Bad’s side the entire time, occasionally glancing over and smiling warmly at the disguised demon. 

Halo found himself returning the smile regardless of his inner turmoil, somehow finding it easing even without a single word being exchanged between them. At some point during their walk home, Skeppy’s tanned and soft hand had slipped into his own, he wasn’t sure when, or how it happened. Just one minute it wasn’t there, and then at some point it was. He twined his fingers with Skeppy, his heart skipping a beat as the action was mimicked by the human. 

For once his inner thoughts slowed, and calmed, finding peace with the boy at his side, and even if his heart was pounding for a reason he couldn’t pinpoint, his mind was calm, and for the first time in a long time he felt at ease. He felt safe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter chapter this time round, next update is going to be rival the 12 page first chapter.. . hopefully lol.   
> Anyways 5k reads?! Holy shit thank you guys so so much! Seriously, I read every comment, and I love every one of you who's shown me support, whether that's just a kind comment, or kudos. Or even just reading my stories. Also look forward to seeing cameos and such from other content creators! (Small note: Fundy's and Halo's convo is in galactic, just didn't want to write it all in it lol)
> 
> Happy Halloween my geeks and treats! 
> 
> Our Discord - https://discord.gg/4KQYZ9t


	11. How Long Until We Crashed Together?

* * *

_**Some Years Ago** _

* * *

“Happy birthday Zak!” His mother grinned warmly as she handed over a small box that was wrapped in shiny paper that had a bunch of party hats sprinkled on the blue background. 

He took the gift from her lightly, he hadn’t really expected much of anything for his birthday this year. His father had passed away in a car accident only a few months prior, so his mother was forced to take a full time job to be able to support the two of them since before his dad had been the main income provider. 

He wasn’t particularly sad about losing his father if he was being honest. His so-called dad had never been kind, had never praised him for achievements, and was often coming home shouting in slurs and drunk beyond comprehension. Just days prior to the accident, his father had once again laid his hands upon the young boy, and left him with a few welts and bruises, one of many times prior. His mother had never been treated any better either. She was a kind soul, with infinite patience for just about anyone, and was willing to forgive you for pretty much anything. He couldn’t imagine her having a single cruel bone in her body, but both of them were better off mentally and physically without the man she called a husband. Even if financially they were struggling, it was an infinitely better trade off in Skeppy’s opinion. 

“Open it!” She grinned and clapped her hands together as he tore at the fanciful wrappings. 

Nestled within the box was a book. It looked old and worn, it’s corners fraying from the once pristine leather bindings, and the pages yellowing at their edges. He held it up as he inspected the title, and his heart soared. 

“You got me a supernatural book!” He beamed happily as he began to flick through the journal. 

He had always had a passion for the strange and bizarre. The things that defied explanations, and couldn’t just easily be explained away with science. He loved magic, real magic. Not the mobs that burned in daylight, or the golems that were able to be built, but real magic like summoning fire, reading minds, and anything else. However, sadly much of reality didn’t seem to hold that magic, but he had persisted nevertheless. He began to thumb through the pages, looking over titles, bolded words, and headings. Documentation Beginnings, Duat, Nether, Break Through Portals, Entry Logs, Incident Response, Construction, The End, Demons, Experimentations, Letters.

Every page was filled with what looked like hand written notes and scrawls. Dates peppered the corners of the pages, marking times and years, which seemed to range from the late 1890’s and ending in 1903. His eyes widened as he read through, and caught glimpses of strange glyphs, and languages he had never seen. He finally looked up at his mother, who seemed to have a sad sweet smile on her face. 

“Do you like it?” She asked him softly. 

He grinned nodding eagerly, “I love it! Where did you find this?” 

He saw the hesitation in her, but it seemed to vanish easily, and in his childish mind he easily dismissed it as she answered, “Oh just some second hand shop down the road, it doesn’t really matter right?” 

He shrugged, she was right, it didn’t matter where she had found it, or how she had found it, all he cared about was that it was his now. It was one of three gifts he’d gotten for his birthday, the other two were a chocolate bar from his teacher, and another scientific like book on ancient glyphs and forgotten societies that his best friend Spifey had given him. Although this book far outpaced the other one in his fascination. This book felt so real, so bound to reality that he couldn’t possibly imagine it being faked. It was something he read over hundreds of times after his father’s funeral, and when his mother worked long hours as a cashier. 

His dad had a closed casket funeral. He didn’t really understand what that meant, and what the difference was since it was the only funeral he had ever been to. But his mother explained that ‘he was really badly hurt in the car accident, so he can’t be seen’. Although as an eight year old boy, this had only piqued his interest in wanting to see the body. After all, how bad could it possibly have been if he was in a drunk driving car accident right? But regardless of his wishes, the funeral had been drab. Simple and cheap since they couldn’t afford much more than that, and he was fairly certain that even if they could afford better, his mother probably wouldn’t put it in. 

After the drunkard’s death, his mom seemed happier. Like a weight lifted from her shoulders, she was more relaxed, and more willing to chat and talk about anything with her few friends or her son. Although at the same time she seemed a bit more on edge during the nights, she was careful to lock doors and windows every night, and always would double check on him. He brushed it off with it probably being her dealing with the loss of her husband, even if he was abusive, he had still been a huge part of her life for a long time. Yet from then on, even when it was a joke, or he was far too old for it, when he called crying to her from nightmares to check the closet, or under the bed. She always would, without complaint, and without hesitation. 

* * *

_**Present Day** _

* * *

Skeppy paused as he munched on his mac n’ cheese, he wasn’t sure what had stirred the memory in him, maybe it was Bad peeking out from the closet as he played with the sliding door though. He couldn’t help but smile as he ate, sitting at the edge of his bed with his bowl of box made food. Bad’s little tail wagged behind him as he explored the room around him with a new fascination. 

Skeppy had never believed in boogie men, or the monster under the bed. He had a wild imagination sure, but one thing that he’d never actually been all that scared of was the dark. It was something he’d find oddly comforting over scary and intimidating. Like a welcoming pair of warm arms after a long day of struggling. Granted, as a little kid, the closet had spooked him a few times, and after his father’s death he’d had too many nightmares of dying in a car crash to count, and yet, no matter how many times he joked, or what magic he believed; the concept of something hiding under his mattress waiting to eat him had never been one. 

Bad turned on his heels from the closet, and almost smacked into the ajar sliding door with his quick and jerky motion. The demon squeaked a bit and stumbled, falling to the ground as Skeppy stifled a fit of laughter and he set his food down, walking over and helping Bad to his feet. 

“Watch where you’re going buddy.” He teased lightly. 

Bad huffed as he scrambled to his feet, tail flicking in annoyance, “I did! Not my fault your doors are all funky.” 

Skeppy snorted laughing again, and shaking his head, “You still need to be careful, can’t have you breaking your nose on a door frame right?” 

Halo seemed to have greatly improved in mood from earlier at school, the pair of them having dismissed the discussion and revelation of what had happened to the author of his journal, which currently rested on his night stand in its usual spot. He settled back onto the bed, and picked up his cheese, scooping another spoonful into his mouth. 

“Well, besides weird doors, what else do you have around here?” 

Skeppy shrugged, “I mean I have my set up for games and such.” He took another bite and then exclaimed with his mouthful, “Oh shit! I was supposed to work on a recording with Spifey and Finn today!” 

Bad crossed his arms, “Language, and don’t talk with your mouth full Skeppy! It’s impolite.” 

Skeppy grinned but finished the food in his mouth as he hopped up and made his way to his recording set up, flicking on the monitor as the computer hummed to life. He adjusted his microphone, which was slightly askew from his last recording session of getting angry at a game called ‘Getting Over It’ what an ironic name for an infuriating game. He glanced sideways as Bad picked his way over curiously inspecting his camera with delicate hands. 

“What’s this?” Bad cocked his head as he ran a hand over the side of it. 

Skeppy gingerly took it and attached it to its stand on his desk, “That’s my face cam, it records my face for videos.”

“Videos?” 

“Like.. .like the shows on TV but they are made by people like you and I, and then they’re posted to the internet that I showed you last week.” 

Bad thought it over, clearly trying to understand it as Skeppy booted up the game ‘Among Us’ and discord. Finn and Spifey were already sitting in a vc with a few others as he plugged his headset in. He was hesitant to turn on the camera with Halo directly behind him since he didn’t know if the demon boy wanted to be a part of his recording, let alone on camera. He joined the VC to hear Finn screaming about Spifey being a traitorous bastard for killing him as the last victim. He couldn’t stifle his laughter as Spifey cackled with him. 

“Okay okay! Wait Zak!” Spifey was talking between giggles, “Skeppy’s here with us now Finn.” 

A few other voices were chatting, and as he looked at the names he smiled. “Hey what’s the code? I wanna join in.” 

“Gimme a sec.” Spifey was shown as typing before a code to join the room appeared in the chat. 

He typed it in easily, and glanced at the list of names in the VC. He was the ninth to join them, and he skimmed over the names quickly. There was Wilbur, Spifey, Finn, Skeppy, Tommy, Tubbo, Sapnap, and two names he wasn’t familiar with. Their names were Dream and Corpse Husband. He glanced over as Corpse’s name lit up with him joining into their game. The man’s voice was deep and rumbling, low and raspy, and it caught him seriously off guard as the boy spoke. 

“Hey Skeppy, nice to meet you dude.” 

He stammered for a moment, “Nice to meet you too Corpse, you too Dream.” 

Bad perked from behind him, as he brought a stool over and settled next to Skeppy, “Who are you talking to?” 

One thing Bad still seemed to have a hard time remembering and picking up was how sensitive microphones were. So he was talking well beyond loud enough for his headset to pick up his roommate, and broadcast it to the group he was with. He put a hand to his lips and shushed the demon, who looked slightly hurt. 

He muted his microphone, “I’m playing with Spifey and Finn, and a few of my friends, Bad you’ve gotta be quiet or else they’ll all hear you.” 

Bad’s milky eyes widened and he nodded closing his mouth and making a zipping motion to it indicating he was going to be quiet now as Skeppy unmuted his mic and went back to his game. 

“Who’s with you Skep?” Sapnap asked him curiously. 

Sapnap was a long time friend of his, the two of them had known each other for a few years, and while they’d never met in person, they had played hundreds of times together over the years. Even so, he was hesitant to reveal the secret demon he was hiding in his apartment, so he came up with a quick lie. 

“Oh just my new roommate, uh Daryll.” He was grateful for remembering the human name Bad had given earlier, and Tommy spoke up next. 

“Oh the exchange kid with the funny accent!” 

“Tommy _you_ have a funny accent.” Sapnap retorted and Skeppy laughed. 

“I mean. . .he’s not wrong.” Corpse's deep and raspy voice agreed with a quiet laugh. 

Tommy huffed dramatically over the chat, and one could practically hear the eye roll from the blond as Finn spoke up, clearing his throat. 

“Let’s just start this game.” Finn cut in interrupting any other argument before it could arise between the others. 

The group played a few games together for a while, and at one point while playing Wilbur had forgotten to mute his mic, and cackled as he leaned into it whispering how he got imposter finally with the game, and the rest of the group was howling with laughter as Finn spoke carefully. 

“Anyone unmuted?” 

There was a slam of hands on the desk, and clattering of what was probably a keyboard, “ **FOR FUCKS SAKE.** ” Wilbur cried out in frustration, loud enough for it to be heard outside of Skeppy’s headphones, and Bad raised an eyebrow at the loud voice. 

The nine of them played together for a little while, and Bad just waited beside him, making the occasional quiet comment about the game as he started to pick up on the mechanics surprisingly quickly. While it was probably technically cheating, it wasn’t like Bad could see anyone else’s screens so it wasn’t cheating too much. They played for a few hours until the autumn sun began to set, and Skeppy found his room growing dim with the exception of the glowing light from his screen. Finally a soft tap pulled his attention away from the monitor as Halo looked at him hesitantly, his eyes pale and with a soft glow in the increasing darkness. He quickly muted his mic and pulled his headphones off slightly to listen to the demon. 

“What’s up?” 

“I’m hungry.” Halo mumbled softly as if ashamed to be asking for food. 

Skeppy quickly unmuted himself, “Hey guys, I’m going to grab some food, I’ll be back shortly.” He remuted, and left the game as he hopped up and led Halo into the kitchen. 

He was no cook in any sense, but he could prepare some simple meals, and Halo was wringing his hands together looking away a bit as Skeppy heard his stomach rumble quietly, and it suddenly clicked that Halo had not eaten anything since that morning, and from what he understood, is that now that Halo’s system had adjusted to the surface, he would get hungry just like any human would or should. A bit of guilt rose in him as he realized this, and began making some food for the both of them. Just some simple peanut butter sandwiches, and once he sat back down handing Halo his food, the other happily nibbled on the bread. 

The pair sat at the table mostly in silence as Bad ate, Skeppy wasn’t very hungry still so he was more so picking at his food than eating, but he didn’t want to make the other feel weird about being the only one eating. Bad had finished his sandwich and looked at Skeppy seemingly concerned. 

“Is everything alright?” 

“Huh?” Skeppy looked up, “Oh, yeah I’m fine, just not very hungry is all. I just didn’t want you to feel weird being the only one eating.” 

Bad smiled, laughing softly, “Ah, well it’s okay if you don’t want to eat, thanks though.” 

Skeppy shrugged as he hopped up, and moved to return to his set up, he noticed Bad settle onto the couch with a quiet yawn. He smiled slightly as he flicked off the light and returned to his bedroom, closing the door behind himself so he wouldn’t disturb the sleeping demon with his rowdy game play. At least he would try his best not to, even if his journal claimed demons didn’t need sleep, Halo always seemed exhausted when he didn’t get rest, so he had dismissed the claim and just figured he’d let Bad sleep. Out of the two of them at least one should have a proper sleep schedule. 

He played with his friends for another hour or so, and even so, every time the deep raspy voice came over the comms, it caught him off guard as he heard Corpse speak. Supposedly the man was only a few years older than Skeppy, the man sounded like his vocal cords had been replaced with low rumbling engines or something. 

Eventually due to a mix of time zones and scheduling his friends teetered out, and he found himself yawning and closing down the game as well. A quick glance at the green clock on his nightstand indicated it was a little after one am in the morning. With a huff and a sleepy yawn, he changed out of his clothes and into some softer and more comfortable pj’s before slipping into bed. 

* * *

The first thing he heard were voices. 

He carefully padded towards the closed door, and pressed his ear to listen in as he heard his mother talking frantically with someone on the other side. He could also hear footsteps as his grandfather answered her. 

“Millie, you can’t just be upset with the boy, of course he enjoys these things.” He heard his grandpa soothe before there was a frustrated growl from his mom. 

“I know he does! That’s the problem, it’s like these things are just attracted to our bloodline.” She sounded annoyed, hurt, and frustrated. 

“You can’t blame Zak for him.” 

“If your stupid bloodline wasn’t so close with those things, this wouldn’t have happened!” 

He cringed as he heard his mother shout, she never shouted. Millie was always even, and calm, the person who had a level head in the most drastic situations, so it was spooking him that his mother was practically screaming at the old man she was conversing with. 

“Millie - “ 

“Do not Millie me.” She snapped angrily, “That damned thing killed my husband! I don’t care how long you’ve had that stupid thing, I’m keeping me and my son out of this! It is ending here and now, you will not tell your grandson of our lineage, and he and I will leave, and you will not tell him anything!” 

He heard fast approaching footsteps and scrambled back into his bedroom barely slipping inside the door frame as he heard his mother’s bedroom door open, and she stormed out. He risked a peek out to the hall where he saw her disappear down the stairs, he didn’t understand why she was upset, he didn’t understand what she was talking about. She had told him that dad had died in a car crash, wasn’t she glad that the man who hurt them was gone? 

* * *

Skeppy awoke with a start from the dream like memory, and rubbed his eyes. He still felt exhausted, and now he felt thirsty. He had thought over that memory dozens of times, although he never had gotten any answers about his grandpappy’s and his mom’s conversation, even all these years later. He forced himself out of bed, and fought off a cold shutter as his toes touched the cold flooring of his apartment. Even carpeted it was far colder than under his blankets, and he was half tempted to just curl back up under them. But his parched throat protested, so he slowly trudged into the kitchen. 

He was filling up a glass of water for himself when a slight movement caught his eye. He turned squinting into the darkness of his apartment as he tried to make out what he thought he had seen. He was still tired and was about to dismiss it when it happened again. A tail tip flicking and catching the moonlight. He sighed, shaking his head for being spooked since it was just Halo, but as he watched the dark living room something was off. 

He looked back and frowned as it dawned on him what was wrong with the scene in front of him. The form on the couch was big, not gigantic or like over sized for the furniture, but it was far too big to be Halo, at least the one that he knew. Carefully he flicked on the kitchen light, despite it being only three, he was now wide awake as he picked his way into the living room and investigated the thing on his couch. 

It still looked like Halo, well mostly. The demon on his couch was taller now though, probably about a foot taller than the tanned human, if not more, although with him laying down curled on the couch it was hard to tell. His skin was a rich midnight blue black, his face and arms still splattered with the light purple freckles. He still had the same sooty grayish hair that fell down and over his currently closed eyes. But his horns rather than being small and nubbly were long and curved backward and inward, almost like. . .a halo. A broken and black halo. They were also a lot sharper, and the points glinted slightly in the darkness. His tail was draped over the arm of the couch casually, and its tip would flick from time to time. The blackened tail was also larger in proportion to the demon's size. Small triangle-like spikes ran along the spine of the tail, they seemed shorter and flatter and gradually grew more narrow and sharp from the base to the tip of his tail. His ears were longer as well and pointed at the ends. His chest rose and fell in slow and even breaths, his fingers occasionally twitching in his sleep. 

Skeppy took an involuntary step backwards, when Bad had first claimed to be a demon, the shape in front of him matched much closer to what his original thought process had been rather than the demon that had been revealed to him a few weeks ago. He studied the other, the sharp talon like claws on his fingers, the spines that ran neatly down his tail, and the deadly sharp horns. Even if he was only human, he could sense the aura of dark magic that clung to the being in front of him, and for the first time in his life, he was afraid of what the supernatural held. He back pedalled to his room quickly, but stumbled over his bag and fell sprawling to the floor with a groan. 

He heard quiet shuffling behind him and a hesitant voice called out, “Skeppy?” 

Bad’s voice was still distinct, there was no mistaking the sweet gentleness to it. Except now his voice seemed to rumble in his chest with a whispering howl voice echoing just out of sync from his first voice. His accent which Skeppy had dubbed the ‘Nether’ accent was thicker as well, not super obviously, but since he’d been spending so much time around Bad, it was clear to him. He forced himself to his knees, and then his feet. 

“I’m - I’m alright Bad, just was getting a drink.” He mumbled quietly, almost feeling deja vu with the situation, but dismissed it. 

He could feel the demon’s eyes on him, and from the corner of his eye, he could also see the much more distinct white glow from his milky gaze, “O-oh, I hope I didn’t wake you.” 

He stepped back into the kitchen with a soft sigh, “No you didn’t buddy, don’t worry.” He was just outside his bedroom, his mind swimming with questions, but he forced them away with a quiet sigh. 

He was too tired and honestly too freaked out at the moment to deal with it. He didn’t know why having Halo around was bringing back so many memories of his dad’s passing, or why he was dreaming of his own memories. He also didn’t know why Halo looked the way he did, but three in the morning of the day of an exam wasn’t exactly the time to be asking the questions either. With a shiver he trudged back to his bedroom, trying to shake the shadow demon from his mind, as well as his nerves. 

The next morning went by in a blur, he didn’t see Halo at all, and the few glimpses he got were in the corners of his eyes, or as the demon would vanish into one of the dark crannies in his apartment and hide, refusing to come out. He knew, he knew that Bad was intentionally hiding from him, and it made him both wary, and concerned. So finally he slung his bag over his shoulder and called out to the darkened apartment, in hopes of a reply. 

“I’m heading to school Bad! Do you need anything?” 

“No.” 

The voice spooked him as it’s ethereal echo murmured in his ear, causing him to jump as his heart leapt into his throat. The cold whisper that should’ve belonged to warm breath felt freezing and it froze him, both figuratively and literally. He whipped around looking for it, it was the same voice as last night, and yet it still seemed to grip his muscles in the same way. It was the voice that belonged to a demon, one that actually sounded like how he had originally expected, how the media portrays the creatures. A soft palm rested on his chest cracking the ice. 

He looked upwards to a shadowed face that's features were almost entirely hidden, with the exception of two pale eyes looking back at him from the void under the hood of the cloak. His touch was delicate and gentle, as he slowly rested his hands on Skeppy’s shoulders. Despite the terrifying form in front of him, the thing that the hands belonged to; he couldn’t help but feel a bit more at peace. Bad’s touch calmed him, and soothed his shot and frayed nerves. He let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and sighed.

“Skeppy. . .” Bad’s face was impossible to read mostly because there was no face to read, but his voice wavered with nervousness, “I. . .Are you afraid?” 

It was the same question he’d been asked several weeks ago, but this time it was different. It had a genuine answer that he wasn’t sure who it would hurt more if he said it aloud and confirmed its answer. So he shook his head. 

“Don’t lie to me Skeppy. .please.” 

Even without an expression to join it, the broken voice, and pleading eyes wormed their way into his chest and twisted around his heart as he reluctantly answered, “A little.” 

“I’m sorry.” Bad stepped away pulling his hands back, and suddenly he felt as if he’d lost something, he wanted Bad close again. 

“No, no don’t apologise, it’s. ..its not your fault. Is this what you really look - and sound - like?” Skeppy looked over the demon, who was certainly taller than him now. Probably about eight or nine inches past his own height. 

A slow nod, “I don’t like it either.” 

He couldn’t help the bit of surprise in his voice, “What? But even if you’re scary, you look so badass!” 

Bad huffed quietly, and as his mouth moved Skeppy noticed he could see a bit of the glow from his mouth as well to match his eyes, “Language muffin!” 

That definitely eased his anxieties as he reshouldered his backpack, “How can you look like that, be terrifying, and still correct me for swearing and call me a muffin?” 

“Well swearing is wrong!” 

“Says the demon?” 

“Yes.” Bad folded his arms indignantly and scoffed quietly, “The demon does say so.” 

He cracked a small smile, he had to admit that the demon still set him on edge, but less so now, “Well then good sir, anything else I should learn from today's manners?” 

Bad snorted softly shaking his head, “Yes, your table manners.” He was laughing though as he talked. 

Skeppy laughed with him and unlocked the door, for once he was the one to initiate the daily goodbye hug between the two of them. Bad seemed shocked at this but returned it warmly regardless, and hugged him back tightly almost immediately. 

“I’ll see you later today right?” He asked with his face buried against the dark cloak. 

“Of course silly, I’m not going anywhere.” 

“I know.. . I’ll miss you though.” 

“Aw, you’ll miss me you sweet little muffin?” Skeppy couldn’t help the slight blush that threatened to creep onto his cheeks at Bad’s cheerful tone with the nickname. “Well I’ll miss you too.”

He pulled away from the hug with a bit of reluctance wishing it could last a few moments longer and said his last goodbyes before jogging off to class. Although he had to admit there was a part of him that wished Bad was joining him again for classes today. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Skeppy should visit Egypt because he is already in da Nile.
> 
> I'm sorry that was awful haha, anyways thoughts, theories??


	12. Phone Call (11.5)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a mini chapter. Too important to be cut but doesn't blend nicely with other scenarios

Halo had woken up hearing Skeppy's now familiar alarm buzz and the previous night came flooding back. He had been absolutely exhausted and basically just passed out on the couch, in which his magic must've finally crumbled and he had fallen asleep in his true form. When he had realized he wasn't able to keep up any other appearance he resorted to hiding.

That was something he couldn't possibly mess up at least. He kept himself hidden in the dark areas unlit from the over head lights, his darkened form blending and fading into the shadows.

"I'm heading to School Bad! Do you need anything?" 

He hadn't realized how close he'd been when he had answered his human companion and almost immediately felt guilty upon seeing him jump and put a hand to his chest. 

_Fear_.

It was a bitter and intense smell, bitter and chalky like acid on the nose or something, and it was one he hated. He hated being near it, smelling it, and especially, _especially_ causing it. 

Skeppy had ended their conversation on a much lighter note, leaving Halo feeling warm and fuzzy as he parted. He adored when Skeppy would start their hugs, it made his chest flutter at the small act of affection. He finally sighed and closed the apartment door was he walked back in and noticed Skeppy's strange device was set on the table. He casually walked over and picked it up, turning it over a few times in his hands.

_Skeppy must've left his fone._

He was about to run after his buddy when the screen illuminated with a set of numbers, and the box began vibrating in his hands. A name as well saying Pappy. Panicked he tried to ignore the call and set it back down, instead he accidentally clicked the 'answer' button and not the 'ignore'.

"Hey Zak buddy! Just calling to check in on our birthday boy!" An older sounding man spoke cheerfully from inside of the device.

Halo hesitated, uncertain what he was supposed to do or say since Skeppy hasn't exactly taught him phone educate. But 'Pappy' answered for him.

"Hello? Zak? Are you there? … maybe he butt answered." Pappy seemed to say to nobody in particular.

Finally he gathered every bit of courage he had, (which wasn't a lot) he mumbled, "Skeppy's not here, he left his fone at home." 

"What? Can you say that again?"

"Skeppy's not here, he... He left his fone at home" he spoke louder this time and more clearly.

"Oh then whos… - wait?" The man trailed off quietly for several minutes. "No..."

The silence was becoming almost unbearable from the other end.

Pappy sounded so surprised but spoke carefully with his next words, "Halo is that you?"


	13. It Won't Stay Buried

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;)

Skeppy panted softly as he ran to catch his class before he’d be marked tardy. . .again. He stumbled into History and plopped into his seat next to Eret. The dark haired student gave him a side glance and a hesitant smile. He returned it and easily fell into the routine of work as they put the finishing touches on their large board presentation. Although he now knew Eret was a demon, and his whole world had been thrown into disarray, he was oddly calm about it. Although, granted, he probably didn’t know the depth of the quicksand he’d just run into, but, he was careful and content with what he was starting to learn. Class seemed to fly by in a breeze, and it's time consumption was added to with his questions. 

His brain was a clogged sink with someone running the tap of curiosity into the overflowing basin. He could barely keep his focus on his assignment for more than a few beats at a time, mind constantly wandering back to the demon in his apartment, why had he looked like that? Why haven’t I seen him look like that before? Why did he lie to me? Why why why. But of course no answers ever came for him, and as he slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way out into the hallway, he was stopped and pulled aside by Finn and Tubbo. 

Finn was less of a surprise than Tubbo, although he frowned seeing the two boys together as he looked between the two, who had pulled him from the flow of student traffic and into a small adjacent corridor. Skeppy crossed his arms as he looked at the two. He may have expected Finn to join him in a walk, or to ask him about what was going on after his adverse nature to the demon. But Tubbo? He was a wild card, and he didn’t know why the two would be together and stop him. So he figured he’d ask. 

“What’s this all about?” 

Finn rested a hand on his shoulder, “Skeppy, where is it?”

“Where’s what?” 

“You know . . . that thing.” Finn glanced around, although nobody seemed to pay heed to the trio, “Tubbo said you took him here yesterday, what the hell were you thinking?!” 

He was floored, made speechless, so he looked now to the short brunette, who for once wasn’t accompanied by Tommy, and Tubbo sighed softly. Grabbing a small corded necklace that was tucked into his shirt and producing the wooden polished medallion. He recognized the symbols, they were the same as the galactic language in the book, the language of demons. He quickly put two and two together, but sadly only added to three. 

“Tubbo you’re a demon?” Skeppy asked bewildered. 

Finn scoffed, “No dumbass. He’s a co-worker.” 

“What?” 

Tubbo shifted a bit awkwardly, clearly not used to being the spotlight of attention, “Finn is part of my team. We’re hunters. . .demon hunters. He alerted me to the danger of another potential demon on the campus, but I wasn’t sure who until yesterday.” 

Skeppy couldn’t help but feel betrayed, “You ratted me out?” He turned to face his friend. 

Finn sighed softly and shook his head, “No, I was just careful, look Skeppy, I get it. You’re excited because this is something you’ve wanted to know for so long, and what you’ve spent years being invested in. But. . these things,these demons? They’re dangerous, unstable, and they pose a threat. There are a few that work with us, but Halo? He isn’t one of us. As long as he’s alone and unchecked, he’s a danger to us all.” 

“He isn’t a danger. Then. . .who is? Who does work with you two if they’re so much better than him?” 

“Fundy works as an informant, loosely, and the same with Eret. There’s not very many that are nearby enough to interact with.” Tubbo answered. 

“B. . but they. . .” 

The tanned boy stammered for a few minutes, at a loss for words with this new information. No wonder Halo had become so jumpy around Finn, quickly being nervous and compliant, and the same had happened yesterday in class as well. With his demon roommate constantly studying the pair of boys next to them, and seeming on edge with the two boys exposing the document to him. Finn broke through his thoughts and halted his train of worry. 

“So where is it?” 

“It is a he.” He retorted, “And he’s back at home, why do you two even care? He’s not done anything to hurt me, let anyone else, he’s not some danger like you guys keep saying he is. I honestly don’t think he could hurt someone even if he wanted to.” 

“Skeppy please, just at least try and see this from a rational point of view.” 

“I am! It’s you two who are being utterly ridiculous!”

Tubbo stepped forward putting a hand on Skep’s arm, “Skeppy, I don’t think you understand. I don’t care what you think about him, or how he’s acting.” The brunette took a breath and leveled his gaze with his intense dark eyes, “Badboyhalo is an exiled member of the council.”

\--------------------------------------------------------

Halo’s hands trembled on the receiver as he heard the voice call out to him. He could barely believe his own ears as Pappy spoke out to him again, or should he say Johnathan. One of the descendants of his friend from his human lifetime. A man who history had forgotten, but he hadn’t, and he had promised to keep his family safe for as long as Halo possibly could. It was a promise he had made the most of even to date. 

“Hello? Halo? Are you still there?” The phone speaker crackled in his ear.

“I’m still here.” He hoped his voice didn’t sound as shaky as he felt. “It. .I can’t believe it’s you.”

A warm and comforting laugh sounded from the other end. He knew John well, the old man had been a friend, well more of an acquaintance, but the two knew one another. It had been many years since he’d last interacted with the man though, and while time had taken its toll on Pappy, Halo still sounded the same as he always had with his Nether accent, and soft voice. Even like this in his true form, his voice still had a kindness to it. In a slightly creepy but also comforting way he supposed. After he had finished his quiet laugh Pappy spoke up again. 

“It’s been so long since I’ve heard from you, I’ve missed you you know.” 

Bad couldn’t stop the small smile that crept onto his face, “I’ve missed you too, but you know I couldn’t stay on the surface after what happened with Millie and Jebediah. It was too dangerous. . . for all of us.” 

“Yeah I know,” Pappy sighed quietly, “But that’s all in the past but I’m glad to hear from you again. It’s been too long.”

“Me too, how is Millie by the way? I know she never really liked my presence around especially after. . .” 

Even now he struggled to bring it up. He couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud, but his message was clear. 

However, there was a long pause before he got any answer, “She… took his murder pretty hard, and became protective over Zak, but I did manage to convince her to continue to pass down the book.” Another quiet but dry of any humor chuckle, “But that was a battle, she still distanced herself as much as possible from everything.”

It all clicked together in his mind with that sentence. The little boy he’d been assigned as a guardian for all those years ago, Bad finally breaking and snapping, and taking out the real monster in the boy’s life. It made sense, he’d made a portal to take him somewhere safe, and where else would be safer for a failed Guardian and exiled councilmen than with the kid he’d worked so hard to protect. He still vividly remembered the drunkard man, and his death. As much as he hated himself for it, he had relished in the man dying. He’d tried to block out the memories at first, but when it didn’t work, he just learned to cope and embrace it. 

Humans always tell stories of beasts under the bed, or lurking in the shadows to their young. While they weren’t technically wrong, the most vile beasts were among their own race, the more terrifying things came from human nature. There were few creatures more cruel than a human being, and those that, well they all stemmed from humans in one way or another. The man, Jebediah, the one Skeppy had called a dad, was cruel, abusive, and had simply been given his karma. A drunkard and a bastard. 

Bad had many regrets in his life, but Jebediah’s murder was not one of them. 

“ - But I assume you already knew that since you’re with him at the moment. Does he know?” John’s sentence brought him back out of his thoughts.

Bad chewed his lip, “Kind of, he knows what I am, but I don’t talk about my past much. You know how hard it was even back with Will who’d actually been a direct kid to Atticus, and it would hurt him so much. . . He’d hate me, and right now I just. . . I can’t do that to either of us” 

“I know, but you know just as well as I do that you can’t hide this forever. Millie may have tried to shut out that part of his life, but it seems fate had other ideas.” He could almost hear the smile and crinkled eyes in the old man’s voice. “I trust you to tell him in the right way. You’re a good man Halo, and if anyone can bring him to an understanding it’s you. I promise you are.” 

_But am I?_

He wasn’t certain how to reply so a few minutes of silence stretched out over the call, “Thank you John. . .” 

“Of course Halo, I know you’ve been part of our family for a long time, and so was Xiyra. She was a nice young woman too.”

That was a name he hadn’t heard in a long, long time. 

Many years ago, probably as many years as Pappy was old, Xiyra had been a good friend of Halo, and he’d introduced her into his more human side of his life. The world and family he kept safe and protected back on the surface. She fell in love with them, both metaphorically, and literally. She had ended up bonding with one of Skeppy’s ancestors, and so he knew the human boy probably carried some level of dark creator genes in him. Although how prominent and existent they were was hard to tell, and even harder to test. Almost near impossible in truth. Xiyra had died as a martyr and in Halo’s eyes, as a hero. She’d stood up for her interracial relationship, and had died to protect her family and children. She had passed how she lived, a brave and loving protector.

“She was a good young woman Bad, and you are a good man too. Whether or not you believe it yourself.” 

Halo had no reply, and nodded even though the recipient couldn’t see it. He could feel the tears pricking his eyes. _What if he couldn’t keep himself from caring about Skeppy in the same way? What if his feelings caused him to slip up?_ It would break the dark haired boy’s heart, and in turn, it would break his own heart as well hurting the human in that way. _Even if he did, if he were to confess, would he die just as Xiyra had? Would he sacrifice even more? Did he have the strength to even do that?_ Halo doubted it.

“Well back to my original purpose for calling, is Zak home?” 

“. . .No he’s at class, he left his f- fon - phone at home.” He stammered trying to speak without letting the tears in his eyes seep into his voice. 

A hum came from the speaker for a second, “Well when he gets back home will you tell him I called? I was hoping to talk with him, but I suppose it can wait. Ask for him to call back as soon as possible please” 

“Of course! I’ll be sure to let him know.” 

“Thank you Halo,” John laughed, “It was nice to talk to you again.”

“You too John.” 

The dial tone rang out indicating the end of their phone call and he was left slowly lowering the device from his ear, studying it’s dark screen as if it would light up again with Pappy’s number and image. But it didn’t. He sighed, shaking his head at his own silliness, and got up. He had feelings, he couldn’t deny that, but he could keep them to himself. He’d done it many many years ago back with Atticus, so he could surely do it again with Skeppy. 

Halo still felt exhausted, he’d spent so much effort and magic on a mixture of healing his burns from his frantic fleet from the Nether, as well as with human camo, that his body was drained of its reserves. He had pushed his limits before, but never like this, and now he was paying for it. He was almost stuck in his true form, maybe if he forced himself to, he could look more normal, but he didn’t have the energy, ability, or motivation to even try his more natural form. So, instead he laid down on the couch and curled up, falling into a light slumber as he snuggled into the single blanket he’d stolen from Skeppy’s bed. He liked the fabric because it held the boy’s bitter sweet scent, which brought him comfort. His tail curled close and he purred softly as he began to drift off. 

Bad was awoken by the front door being thrown open and voices shouting at one another. One he recognized instantly as Skeppy, and the other two were familiar, but his groggy brain was slow to piece together who was speaking, let alone what they were saying. He slowly sat up, and blinked his bleary eyes as he saw two shapes arguing in the doorway. He tried rubbing the sleep from his eyes to focus on them better.

They were throwing their hands in the air, and shouting at one another, Skeppy in his blue hoodie was standing as a physical blockade between Halo and the two strangers that had entered into the apartment. He yawned as he tried to shake the lingering cobwebs of sleep from himself. The two others weren’t actually strangers, well, complete strangers at least. The first was Finn, Skeppy’s friend who reeked of hunters. Finn was the one arguing with Skeppy, and trying to shove past the dark skinned boy. The other figure was Tubbo, who was lingering slightly on the outskirts of the arguing pair, his gaze flicking between the half conscious demon on the couch, and the two humans. His eyes never settled for longer than a few heartbeats on one or the other. Halo finally started to register what they were saying as he fully woke up. 

“He’s a threat Skeppy! That thing isn’t human, why do you think there’s an entire organization made for tracking them down?! Especially ones like him!” 

Skeppy shifted pushing Finn back, “He’s not like the others! You two are just trying to get me to side with you, he isn’t dangerous! Halo isn’t a bad guy, and he isn’t mean, or cruel, or anything else, and he is not a damn councilman!” 

Bad flinched hearing that term being thrown around, _how did they know?_ That was one thing he did regret. 

“What do you know?!” Finn retorted. “You’re just another human he’s using for food and shelter!”

“Apparently more than you! He’s done nothing to hurt anyone so back off Finn! He’s not some monster like you keep saying!” 

“Skeppy the sooner you just give in, the easier this will be for everyone.” Tubbo murmured quietly, despite the quieter voice the short boy still was able to pull the two’s attention if only briefly.

Bad got to his feet, stepping away from the arguing (now) trio, a mix of fear, anger, and the need to run began to bubble up inside of him, and pulled himself into the safety and comfort of the shadows. He didn’t even initially realize what he was doing since it had become so instinctual to hide. It only took a moment for him to slip into one of the darkened nooks in the house, his shadowy form blending and vanishing into the darkness. He leaned against the wall, sliding to a sitting position and pulling his knees to his chest. Halo waited with baited breath as the humans were quick to notice his absence. Yet the pure terror now clinging and freezing his muscles kept the small demon put in place. 

Finn was the first to realize Halo’s vanishing, “Wha - where did it go?” 

Skeppy spun around, “What are you talking abou - Halo?!”

Finn pushed past the other as Skeppy turned to look in confusion at the now empty couch cushions. Tubbo looked around in confusion and Skeppy seemed both concerned and relived that Bad had seemingly slipped away. That’s when he saw it. The glossy brown circle that rested on Tubbo’s chest. 

The mark of a hunter.

He sucked in a silent breath, ever muscle tensed as he watched the two scour around the apartment. His lungs burned slightly as he felt his throat clench with a dry swallow. As a dark creator the shadows were like a second nature to him, a comfort, and an easy escape route in times of need, it was natural, and didn’t need magic thankfully. Otherwise this ruse wouldn’t last very long so hee remained in his cramped hidey hole. Finn went back to arguing with Skeppy, and eventually after almost an hour, the two relented. Empty handed and with no sign of Halo returning from wherever he’d vanished to, the two hunters had become reluctantly resigned. 

The human finally managed to force the others out of his home, and he gave a sigh of relief that seemed to match Halo’s own feelings. Bad slowly stood as Skeppy slid down the door putting his head in his hands. After a few minutes, he emerged from his secret place, revealing himself to the one human he knew he could trust right now.

Bad crept his way over to the boy, and settled beside him, leaning against the other and resting his head on his shoulder. Skeppy was sniffling quietly, shoulders shaking with almost silent sobs, and so he slung an arm in comfort around the other, pulling him into a hug. The two stayed like that for several beats before the tanned boy then returned the hug gratefully. He curled into Halo in response, and he clung to him like a lifeline, maybe he was. Skeppy certainly was for him. He could see the tear tracks on the other as he nuzzled him in an attempt to comfort the human.

Some part rooted deep in the back of his mind prompted him to purr as he tried to soothe the boy, it seemed to work. He relaxed against him, and his soft crying began to slow as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking. 

Skeppy buried his face into Bad’s coat, “I’m so sorry, I tried to stop them. I wanted to keep this place safe for you.” 

He shook his head, “Don’t be sorry. . . it isn’t your fault, none of this is.” 

“But. . .it is. I want to keep you safe.” Oh the irony. “I wanted to make you feel safe, especially after everything you told me. It’s why I got rid of all the salt lines Finn had made, and why I wanted to bring you to school. I like you being here. . .and and. . and now. .now they’re trying to take you away.” 

“It’ll be okay Skeppy, everything will turn out alright. We’re safe now” 

“Promise?” Skeppy mumbled quietly, eyes closing as he laid his head on Halo’s. 

“I promise.” He assured and Skeppy hugged him tighter for a moment. “I’ll keep you safe.” 

_This time, I will keep you safe, for real now. I promise._

The two remained like that for a while. Just holding one another in the peaceful silence, with Skeppy’s shaky breathing slowly evening out, and calming. It seemed both of them were touch starved, and after a few minutes Skeppy had begun to pet his head softly and gently. Humming quietly with his purring. Although judging by the slow movements and sleepy music, he was just as exhausted as Halo was. Just as Halo was starting to drift off as well he heard Skeppy murmur quietly to him. Although he wasn’t sure how accurately he heard the boy. 

“I love you Halo.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 7.2k hits and 500 kudos? POGGERS. Thank you guys so so much! This chapter was fun to write, a nice mix of angst, wholesome, and lore.


	14. Sunbeams

Halo wasn’t exactly sure whether or not he had heard Skeppy right. Surely he hadn’t, surely it had been just his exhaustion kicking in again. But regardless, as his eyes had dropped closed as he leaned against Skeppy, the words made his heart flutter in his chest. He was purring quietly as he fell asleep, curled against the human boy. Even if he’d only imagined the words, they brought him a sense of peace, and of a possibility, even if only faint, that maybe his feelings weren’t entirely unrequited. 

When he woke up, early morning sunlight had started to filter through the half opened window. He rubbed his eyes, yawning with a quiet sound almost like a whine as he arched his back. As he sat up. ..wait sat up? He looked around where he was, which wasn’t the living room floor anymore. He cast his gaze about the new room trying to get his bearings. 

Instead of being on the cold and uncomfortable floor, he was curled up in a bed, with a light blanket draped around him. There was a nightstand on the opposite side of the bed from him, with an alarm clock. Although a lump in the blankets kept him from reading the time. Like a slap to the face, Halo suddenly realized that he was laying in Skeppy’s bed. He shot up straight and flushed brightly. He distinctly remembered falling asleep on the floor against Skeppy. Surely the boy hadn’t lifted and carried the demon all the way to bed, and then put him in his own bed. Yet, here he was, with exactly having happened. 

He flushed brightly, and tried to quietly slip his way from under the blankets. He was wiggling his way off, and barely had managed to free an arm and his legs before Skeppy, the lump, had rolled over and wrapped a loose arm around his waist. The tanned human sleepily tugged on him, and curled closer to him. Suddenly, he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. 

Either he could try and sneak out of bed again, risking waking Skeppy, and embarrassing himself even more. Or, he could give in, and just lay with him instead. But then both of them would probably be flustered with that. The gentle arm tugged again ever so slightly, and he made his decision. Laying back down and resting his head on Skeppy’s chest as he snuggled with him again. He let his eyes flutter close, despite not being tired anymore, and felt the other’s arms wrap around him, pulling him close and holding him tight. 

Despite no longer really needing the rest, he started to feel himself drift off again in his arms. A light blanket was draped over the both of them, but most of the warmth was coming from Halo’s skin, which was comforting in the chilly early fall morning. 

Skeppy on the other hand had a mischievous grin as he pulled Halo close again, keeping his eyes shut to keep the illusion up. His efforts were rewarded with receiving a snuggly demon boi yet again, and it took all of his will power to not giggle as he hugged him tightly. After a few minutes, and cracking an eye open hearing Halo purr again, he couldn’t suppress the soft giggle. 

Halo’s tail had been idly flicking behind him, and then stiffened as he sucked in a breath and looked up at Skeppy, “How long have you been awake?” 

“Long enough,” He grinned as he held the demon, not really wanting to leave this moment. 

“Did you do this intentionally?” 

“Mmmaybe.” He giggled again as he looked down at Halo whose face was flushed brightly, and he was smiling softly. 

“You little scheming muffin!” 

He slapped Skeppy’s chest lightly as they both burst into laughter as an attempt to diffuse the rather flustering situation. He was grateful for the moment though, especially after last night. It had been a rough day, for both of them. He didn’t want to believe that Bad was on the council. He didn’t know much about their government system, he did know that by being one of the twelve councilmen, Bad was a very strong demon. He also knew that he had to have done something drastic to have gotten himself not only exiled from the Nether, but also having his status revoked. It was all something he didn’t want to think about in the moment, so he pushed it out of his mind, as he twisted to look at the clock. It was almost thirty minutes before he’d normally get up, so it was just over an hour before his first class even started. 

“How are you feeling this morning?” He looked back at Bad. 

“Huh?” 

“Well. . . you clearly were exhausted last night, you’ve slept for like twelve hours, and were napping when I got home.” 

“Oh, uh, I guess using so much magic over the last few weeks without a break really took it out of me.” Bad laughed quietly. 

“You looking like. . .how you normally do, that takes magic?” 

He nodded, “Yeah, it’s only a little. Normally it’s not a problem, but with looking like a human when you sleep so I don’t scare you, healing, and the portal all took it out of me.” 

“Well, do you feel better now?” 

“Much better.” Bad nodded as he assured him. 

“Y’know I’ve been meaning to ask you Bad,” He felt said boy tense in his arms (which he was just as surprised that he hadn’t pulled away from his hold yet) as he continued, “Why did your portal lead here? To the River Trail, right as I was walking down that section of all times?”

Bad was quiet for several long minutes before he replied, “I. . .I didn’t pick the place. Not exactly.” 

“Oh?”

“I made it to lead to a place that was safe.” He started to explain, “I was being chased by a battalion. . .at first I figured since Fundy was on one team, if he caught up with me I’d be fine, because he’s my friend. He’s been my friend for so many years, even under direct orders like that, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.” 

“So what happened then?” 

Bad was quiet for a long moment before he spoke again, “Schlatt separated the team out after me. Fundy and his partner went away from me, and when I started running again, rather than having who I wanted on my heels, I had the head force, Schlatt, Dream, and Technoblade. Dream and Techno are the head guards, and some of the most powerful demons around. Dream is one of Schlatt’s right hand men, one of three that is. So when I turned around to see who was after me, I saw them.” 

Bad had started shaking slightly, and in an attempt to comfort him, Skeppy started to rub soothing circles on his back, just listening to the story. 

“I wanted to make it to the Bounds. From there I could have a chance to cross over to the surface, so few demons will even dare cross there anyways. So if I made it to the Bounds, I could escape, and put distance between myself and them.” 

“Why won’t demons go there?” 

Bad chewed his lip, “Because it’s also the direct boundary to what we call the Lights.” 

Well now his interest was piqued, but he also had the feeling he was starting to tread back into sensitive territory. So, that was a question he would have to shelve for later, as much as he wanted to ask it in the moment. 

“But you didn’t make it to the Bounds did you?” He asked quietly and received a head shake. 

“No, I was forced to make my own portal, and so I just made it with the thought of it taking me somewhere safe. My magic is too unstable to hold a lasting portal, so at the very least I knew they couldn’t follow me through the same portal.”

“Where are they now?” 

“I don’t. .I’m not sure.” Bad admitted quietly, burying his face against Skeppy’s chest, “But I know once they find me I can’t stay.” 

Those words hurt. It wasn’t something he had ever honestly thought about. Even if it had barely been more than two weeks, he was already attached to the demon in his arms. He felt strangely comforted by seeing and hearing him, like some gut reaction in him knew that by having Bad around, he was just naturally a little bit safer. But never once did Bad actually leaving, possibly forever, cross his mind. Now that it was, it felt bitter and like some dark poison, even if it was the most likely outcome. Although, it was honestly the most likely outcome admittedly. An uncomfortable silence settled over the both of them for several minutes as he was left to stew in his own thoughts. 

Eventually his alarm annoyingly buzzed, indicating when he would normally get up, and that he should probably go and start getting ready for school. Reluctantly he peeled himself away from Bad, who sat up and stretched with a quiet squeak as he yawned. Skeppy had to stop himself from cooing at the sweet nature of it. 

As he brushed his teeth, he couldn’t help but think of how ironic it seemed Bad was to the nature of most demons. He should be big, but he was rather short, and small, he should be scary, but he was honestly pretty adorable most days. . .with the exception of his true form. He should be afraid of the demon, but he wasn’t, and while he’d never say it aloud, he had started falling for the other boy. It was simple at first, something he dismissed as just being excited about finally meeting a demon, and then just stress of schoolwork. 

But he couldn’t deny it any longer. Especially after his little tongue slip after the two hunters had left. He wasn’t sure if Bad had even heard it, or what he thought of it if he had, but he still scorned himself and chided himself for letting him say it. He loved Bad. 

The sweetness of the demon, how he behaved with rain, How when Bad was really excited or happy he’d purr, which was a soft comforting rumble. Not to mention how the demon would get excited over mundane things like tv, phones, video games, and cars. It was oddly adorable and endearing. 

He’d even started noticing small details about him, like how his nose would wrinkle when he grinned, his tail wagging happily. How the tips of his ears would flush pink before his cheeks would, or his way of calling him muffin, even when scorning him and now. Here he had been laying in his bed, snuggling with the small demon. Holding him in his arms, with him purring quietly, and just happily curling against him. 

_Fuck. . ._

He had it bad for Bad. 

His phone ringing pulled him from his wandering thoughts, so he quickly spit out the toothpaste, and glanced at the screen. Finn was calling him, which was a bit odd in of itself, especially with the late hour. But he had a feeling that he already knew exactly what this phone call was about to be. He rinsed and reluctantly answered the call, barely catching it before it would’ve gone to voicemail. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey Skeppy,” Finn’s voice sounded. . .apologetic?

“Hey Finn, what’s up?” He ran his fingers through his dark hair in an attempt to tame the fluff. 

“Look, about last night, -” 

“It’s alright.” 

“No, no it wasn’t, and I wanted to apologize. Tubbo and I blindly took some anonymous advice from. .someone, and we didn’t even bother double checking. Which was wrong of us.” 

“I mean yeah, you two seemed pretty trigger happy to jump on the murder mobile.” 

He heard Finn laugh quietly, “We weren’t going to kill him, but you’re right. We should’ve checked the stories with our own informants, which we did after we left.” 

“And?” 

“And well. . .While he is an ex-councilman, it isn’t for the reasons we thought. Tubbo talked with Eret and Fundy last night, and forwarded me a run down of their conversation, and I owe you an apology.” 

Skeppy put a hand on his hip as he turned walking into the kitchen and putting some bread in the toaster, “Well as much as I appreciate it, I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.” 

“What?” 

“Halo, you should say sorry to him. For more than last night too.” 

“What are you. . .ohhh.” 

He rolled his eyes as he got himself a glass of water as he leaned on the counter. Halo emerged from his bedroom, wearing one of Skeppy’s hoodies, which made his tanned cheeks burn a bright red, so he quickly looked away before he could be caught. 

“Yeah, the salt? Yelling at him, not to mention scaring the shit out of him last night.” 

Bad huffed at his side, a disappointed look on his face as Finn sighed over the speaker as he spoke, “You’re right. Both of you deserve a proper apology. I’ve got class today, and then hunters meet after school, so how about Saturday? The six of us go for lunch and talk this out.”

“Six?” 

“You, me, Bad, Tubbo, Eret and Fundy. We can talk about this, and Fundy has some news for Bad as well I think, but I’m not sure what since he refused to tell me.” 

“Saturday works then.” Skeppy nodded even if the other couldn’t see it. 

“Saturday. I’ll see you then.” 

“See you then.” 

The dial tone indicated the end of the call, and he turned his phone off as he grabbed his toast from the toaster, setting it on a plate with a quiet sigh. Bad was at his side, so he handed him a slice and put another in the toaster for both of them. The demon boy took it gratefully with a happy smile, with his nose wrinkle and tail wag and all. He couldn’t help but share the same soft smile. 

Too bad this couldn’t last forever, for Saturday seemed to be a looming doomsday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit on the shorter side sorry :) but I hope the soft fills it up


	15. Friday

Friday morning came around, it was the following day from the phone call with Finn, and the previous day, Skeppy had opted to skip class against his better judgement. Halo still seemed tired from whatever constant music he seemed to be using, and he couldn’t bear just leaving the demon alone for the day, so he hadn’t. Instead the pair had spent the day together, chatting, Halo talking about what the Nether was like, Skeppy, the modern world, and later they had played a few rounds of Among Us together with some of his friends, and Halo was a shockingly good cook. He made a really good pasta for the two of them, which he was currently eating as he and Halo sat and were watching a movie. They had fallen asleep on the couch like that, and much to Skeppy’s relief, not once was his little slip of ‘I love you’ mentioned, maybe, after all, he’d only said it in his head. 

The following morning, both boys were feeling far more refreshed, and the cool fall weather was being staved off by the warm body leaning on him, and even with his phone’s alarm buzzing, he didn’t want to get up. But eventually Bad yawned and sat up, taking away his comfy heater, and forcing him to wake up properly as well. Skeppy began getting ready for class and Bad trailed him like a puppy the whole time, and was currently playing with Skeppy’s hair while he sat and brushed his teeth, sitting on the edge of the tub. 

Once he was ready, he looked back at the demon, and hesitated, before asking, “Can you - . . .do you want to come with me today?” 

Bad paused a moment, “. . .I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” 

It probably was. But his middle name was bad ideas. 

“Yeah maybe, but, I don’t want you to be alone all day.” 

“I can take care of myself.” 

“I. .. I know, but. .please?” He asked quietly, “I liked having you come with me earlier this week. Plus I talked things over with Finn and Tubbo, and I think they understand now.” 

Bad tilted his head, pondering Skeppy’s words for a moment, before he smiled softly, and nodded. Shifting to his human form, and adjusting his glasses that were sitting crookedly on his nose as he followed Skeppy on his heels to class. 

History class felt like it breezed by, Eret and Bad talked for a little while, and the three of them chatted most of the hour away over actually working, which while it wasn’t responsible, it was fun. Then came his architecture class. As the pair settled into their seats, Tommy and Tubbo came in, both seemed far more tamed today compared to last time he’d seen the duo. Whether that was because of Bad, or something else he wasn’t sure. But Wilbur wasn’t with them either, and usually he was, and now that he thought about it, Tommy hadn’t been in class the day of the confrontation. The teacher began her lesson, and once assignments were distributed, he decided to ask the pair about it. 

“Tommy, is everything alright?” Sure he knew why Tubbo may be acting a bit off, but Tommy never was fazed by anything. 

The blond jumped slightly, “Huh? Yeah - yeah we’re fine.” 

“Where’s Wilbur?” 

Tommy hesitated, glancing at Tubbo, and the two shared a knowing look, and neither answered for a long moment, which made his concern raise even more. 

“Tubbo? Tommy? Where’s Wilbur?” 

Tubbo sighed eventually, and scooted over, speaking in a hushed whisper, “Wilbur is the third demon who’s a part of our team, but he got. . .injured recently, and it's bad enough he’s not able to attend class right now.” 

Bad, who’d leaned in to listen, didn’t seem very surprised by this information, in fact, if anything he seemed to have a look of realization, before what was probably an internal facepalm, as well as a silent ‘oh’. Skeppy wanted to ask but before he could, the teacher spoke up giving new instructions for the final that was coming up in two weeks. Which made all of them hush up, and turn their attention back to the front, which prevented him from asking anymore questions. 

He was set on edge having Tubbo, Tommy, and Bad in the same room, in close proximity, but after a bit, Bad slowly started creating conversation with the two teens, and tensions seemed to ease. It was an almost uncanny talent the demon possessed it seemed. He was able to ease tension, calm frayed nerves, and bring peace to a nervous group, at least in pretty much every situation he’d seen so far. A part of him honestly felt like he already knew Halo, although that was completely illogical, so he’d never mentioned it. 

Classes came and went, some slowly, and others felt like they barely lasted more than a heartbeat, but most of all, he was grateful to be heading home again. He and Bad were walking along the river trail where they’d first met, and his demon buddy had shed his camo, and his tail was swaying behind him as the pair walked. 

“So. . .this lunch tomorrow,” Skeppy started, and Bad looked up at him and smiled. 

“Yeah, I’m glad we’re going to be able to resolve this.” Bad nodded, seeming calm, “Plus Fundy will have my back, even if Eret doesn’t.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“Well. . .he and I have been friends for years, and he was my mentor for a long time. He acts tough, and pretends to be obedient to Schlatt, but honestly I know he wouldn’t hurt me. He was on one of the battalions after me, but if I had been caught by his team, well . .I suppose none of this would’ve happened. So as scary as that was, I’m almost glad about it.” 

Skeppy smiled a bit, “What, you’re telling me that you like me?” 

Bad tilted his head and giggled, “Well yeah silly, I mean you told me you loved me.” 

Ah that. . .

His cheeks flushed brightly, and his face and ears turned pink, “O. .oh I did? Are - are you sure that’s what I said?” 

“I. . I mean I thought so, did you not mean it?” He asked, and his face looked briefly disappointed, but the expression quickly vanished, “Or like. . .how did you mean it? Like a friend?” 

“Uh. . yeah, yeah like a friend,” but that wasn’t true, he wanted it to be more than a friendship, but he knew that wasn’t possible. 

He and Halo would probably never work, Bad didn’t love him like that, he was just naturally kind, despite what he was. Not to mention the fact that he was human, and Bad was a demon, which meant they’d both always be at risk from one side or another if they were to ever have a relationship. . .not that they would. 

“Oh. . .okay.” 

Did he imagine the disappointment? Did Bad also want it to be more? No, that's a problem for another day. 

Which that day was probably not far off, knowing his luck at least, but hey, one can procrastinate feelings right? Well Skeppy would certainly at least try. So that’s what he did, he boxed them away and put them on a shelf too high so he could jump to conclusions later on. 

The rest of the walk passed in mostly silence, with only the occasional exchange between them, and he couldn’t help but feel he had upset Bad, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of what he said, or if the demon boy felt just as nervous about tomorrow as he did. So as they approached the apartment, he got an idea, one that might help put both of them at ease. 

“Are you hungry?” 

“Huh?” 

“Are you hungry demon boy?” He grinned as he looked over at his roommate. 

Bad flushed a bit at the nickname, “Actually, yeah, how come?” 

“Why don’t we grab something to eat?” 

You’re asking him on a date, this is absolutely a date. 

Bad tilted his head, and grinned, tail wagging, “Why not! Where’s a good place to eat around here?” 

This is deffo flirting this is deffo flirting. This is a date. This is very gay.

He fished his phone from his pocket, and began looking through a short list of restaurants around that sounded at least half decent, and offered a few to Bad. Eventually they both settled on a small local sandwich shop called Kneaders. Skeppy had been there a few times, and the place was actually pretty good, if not a bit pricey, but their sandwiches and desserts they served definitely made the slightly higher cost worth it, 

The two walked along a side road, and clouds once again began to bunch up in the sky, creating a hazy atmosphere, and Bad kept looking up at the sky, a soft grin on his face, and his tail started wagging again when he asked gleefully. 

“Is it going to rain again?” 

He looked up at the sky as well and chuckled, “Yeah I think it will.” 

“Yesssssss.” 

He snorted as the demon giggled and the pair made their way to the small diner using his gps with directions. Bad had shifted to his human form earlier, so they walked in together, and Halo almost instantly had his face to one of the glass displays that held delicacies of far too much sugar behind him, and Skeppy was certain that if he was still in his natural looks, his tail would be wagging like an excited golden retriever.

“Bad, what do you want to eat?” He gestured up to the menu getting the demon’s attention. 

Bad reluctantly pulled himself away from the treat display, and looked up at the menu, and frowned slightly. It took him a bit longer than he expected to read through it, and then pick something to eat. But eventually, both of them ordered and sat down at a table with a small number stand for their food. Once they were seated, the other leaned across the table. 

“I’m really bad at reading English,” He admitted a bit sheepishly, and laughed quietly. 

Skeppy chuckled as well and smiled, “It’s no worries, honestly, I’m certain they’ve had far more impolite customers than just someone who reads a bit slowly.” 

“You aren’t annoyed?” 

“Not at all.” 

Bad seemed relieved and sighed as he sat back nodding a bit. “Okay.” 

Eventually their food arrived, and Skeppy grinned as he saw the demon’s beaming grin as he got what they called a ‘chocolate dome’ which was basically a truffle of sorts that was massive, and about a little bigger than the size of his fist, and had a dollop of cool whip on top, He had managed to ask for it while Bad had been distracted looking at the displays, and then the decorative seasonally themed display between the seating area, and the area to line up for one’s order. Seeing his face made it worth the extra money. 

“Is this mine?” 

Skeppy nodded. 

“Did you get one?” 

“Nah, I wanted to surprise you.” 

Bad giggled softly, and looked around, before grabbing a plastic knife and cutting the treat in half, before pushing it towards Skeppy, “We can share!” 

He was definitely caught off guard by the gesture, “Are you sure? I mean. . .it’s yours.” 

“Yeah but you got it for me, the least I can do is share some of it!” 

Skeppy blushed a bit as he was handed a part of the treat, and had a feeling that refusing it would quickly become a losing argument for him. So he accepted, and they finished their meal in a contented and happy silence. Once they had finished, they cleared their items and were heading out the door when Skeppy was suddenly pulled into a hug. 

He made a startled sound as Bad hugged him tightly and nuzzled against him before letting go, “Thank you.” 

“. .for what?” 

“For this,” Bad looked up and grinned, “For taking me out to eat.” 

He shrugged, “It’s nothing really.” 

“It means a lot to me though. ..it’s been a long time since anyone’s been that nice to me.” 

“Really?” 

Bad nodded, “Yeah, it was nice, so thank you Skeppy.” 

His ears burned slightly as his thoughts from earlier returned, but he pushed them away, not today feelings. He hygged Bad briefly as they started their walk back home now, “Well I’m glad I could give that to you.”

“I love you too Skeppy.” 

His heart skipped a beat, and half his mind expected the sentence to be followed immediately with some form of a but. Yet it never came, instead he got those deep soft green eyes looking at him expectantly, pale skin slightly flushed pink, and a fanged grin. No caviot, no but to the sentence. 

“. . .like a friend?” 

Bad shrugged a bit, and looked away, as he pulled his hoodie up, a bit embarrassed, “Y-yeah sure.”

Skeppy’s heart felt like it was soaring inside of his chest, and he could barely believe what he was hearing himself. Sure there was always the possibility, but even so. . .it wouldn’t work. He didn’t want to risk letting himself truly fall for Halo. Right now it was some stupid crush, and it would pass, and then he would be content with them staying friends forever and always. Yet he was torn between knowing this, and wanting more still. But he didn’t want to cause an argument, or let himself fall harder and faster than he already was, so he forced himself to change the topic, and began talking about tomorrow. 

He’d always been a bit bored of Alice, and much preferred the hatter, but now he felt like he was the king of hearts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some calm and wholesome time before we start tearing apart the wholesome ;)


	16. Unmasked

Skeppy sighed softly as he slowly woke up. It was Saturday, and he was sleeping in, his hazy mind prompted him that he needed to be somewhere, but he pushed it away and ignored it as he rolled over in bed, arm reaching out for something. . . .wait, what was he doing? Some pang struck him as he found the comforter next to him cold and empty. It had only been once, and it frankly had been an accident that Halo and him shared a bed, but still. Ever since then he felt like something was missing. Someone.

He didn’t want to admit it, not because he didn’t recognize the feeling, didn’t realize just how twisted his heart was, but because he was scared. A part of him wanted to pull the demon into his arms, hug him close, and melt into his embrace. Into his warm arms, and losing himself while just sitting with him, he wanted to satiate the butterflies and warmth that bloomed in his chest with every giggle, and he desperately wanted  _ something _ from Halo. No, not something, he wanted his feelings to be requited. He wanted to gently cup his face, and look up at him, and pull his collar down and - 

_ No. This was wrong, Bad deserves more than me.  _

His chest ached with a loneliness he thought he wouldn’t feel again after his first relationship, his first break up. Maybe that’s why he was so afraid to open his mouth, to let those three words tumble out, he already had, but it felt bitter. Like bile on his tongue, words that were tainted with cyanide and burned on their way out. Slowly he closed his eyes and curled his fingers around the cold duvet, sighing softly. 

He was afraid to lose Halo. He had grown so close with the other, he didn’t want to just throw this relationship down the drain. Yesterday felt awkward, like some fever dream, Halo was definitely the kind of person to just platonically say  _ I love you _ . Those cursed words, those oh, so blessed words. But most of all, he was afraid of those feelings being returned. He didn’t want to put the demon into harm's way just because of  _ feelings _ . He didn’t want to drag Halo down into the mess of his life, of his past. 

With a slow sigh, and reluctantly opening his eyes, he started to wake up. 

Carefully he walked out to the kitchen, the original plan had been to sleep in, but that was scrapped as the coffee pot whirred to life it’s quiet hum filling the silence of the seven am morning. With the cold setting in, the sun was slow to rise. 

_ Why am I up before the sun? _ He thought grumpily,  _ Oh yeah because of my stupid feelings. _

He glanced towards the dingy couch that Halo was asleep on. He was curled up, face peaceful and calm. A tiny sleepy smile on his cheeks, and occasionally his tail tip twitched with his fingers as he slept. He swallowed thickly and looked away, shaking off his suddenly pounding heart, and instead decided to waste his brain on social media. 

A few hours passed, and he was sitting at the table, with a reheated mug of coffee in his hands, absently scrolling through his feed and timeline, just trying to burn time, and take his mind off of Halo, off of today and the planned lunch. The two of them could very well be walking straight into a trap, into their doom, where he may lose Bad forever, never seeing him again, never truly confessing. No, he wasn’t about to let himself think like that, he was no negative nancy, and he wasn’t going to let emotions guide him this time.

A quiet yawn and squeak came from the boy on the couch as he awoke, stretching and arching his back like a cat as his tail curled and uncurled before slowly sitting up. He blinked sleepily, brushing some gray sooty hair from his face, before smiling from seeing Skeppy. He pulled the blanket off and hopped to his feet, and the two began their ever growingly familiar routine. 

Bad would join him, having a cup of coffee with him, and they’d make some light chat, then Skeppy would go and get dressed and Bad would brush through his hair before trailing him like a lost puppy. However, instead of class cutting them off from one another, today was lunch. Skeppy glanced at the clock, they should get going about now if they wanted to make it in time. 

\--------------------------------

Skeppy put his small car into park as he pulled into the parking lot in front of the small diner. Their friend group had visited here for years, many late night meals, sleepy talks, and even drunken secrets had been told at the old tables on the tiled floors of the diner. The familiar scent of wheat and honey and treats wafted from the door as they walked inside, the small bakery of pastries had some freshly laid out trays. 

“Skep! Over here!” A voice, Finn, waved them down, gesturing for the two of them to come sit at the rather large booth that had several other occupants. 

Tubbo, Finn, Eret, and Fundy were seated at the table. Tubbo was on the outer seat, with Eret next to him, then Fundy, and then Finn. There were still two empty seats in the rounded booth for Skeppy and Halo to sit down. He couldn’t stifle the looming dread that clenched his throat with a fist tight grip. 

“Let’s start with an apology.” Finn spoke softly, looking down at his hands briefly before sighing and looking up, “Halo, I- I’m sorry for how I acted but surely you understand - “ 

“Finn.” Eret’s voice cut in as they gave the hunter a stern look from behind their glasses. 

“Right, look, Tubbo and I should’ve done more research before just jumping the gun on detaining you.” 

Halo shifted at Skeppy’s side, “It’s alright, I forgive you guys, I understand.” He gave a polite smile, brushing some blond hair from his eyes. 

Eret glanced around the currently almost entirely empty diner, hand raising and hesitating before he slowly pulled his sunglasses off, and set them on the table eyes shut for a moment as she spoke, “Finn and Tubbo are one of the top hunters around. So their actions, while not excusable, are permissible.” 

Skeppy turned his attention to Eret, silenced half by the fact that Eret had actually removed her glasses, and by their words. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but this wasn’t it. 

Eret’s eyes slowly opened, and he could do nothing but gape as their eyes stared back at him. They were white, not like Bad’s that were obvious just pale eyes, but  _ glowing _ , even in the bright light, it was like actual lights instead of eyes, which would explain the glasses, and they continued. 

“Fundy spoke with me about what happened, your trial, team Image, and now Techno.” 

Skeppy frowned as Halo tensed at his side and he blurted, “Techno? Who’s that?” 

“He is one of the most brutish and strongest guards. He’s another member of the Council of 12. He is also - other than Schlatt - the only demon that actually holds power over the soldier Dream. One of the most feared demon soldiers.” Tubbo added helpfully. 

“So bad guy,” 

“Well. .no not exactly.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Tubbo sighed a little, “He’s technically part of their government, but he’s an anarchist. He couldn’t give less of a shit of the power and government, or coups happening or anything else.” 

“So why is he on the council?” 

Finn, Fundy, and Eret answered in unison, “Control.” 

Bad nodded at his side, “The Council, as it stood before we met up, has three levels. The first are the big three. That’s Schlatt, Techno, and . . .his co advisor, who people aren’t supposed to know, but his name is Wilbur. He's Wilbur from class, I recognized him, but we never met much so I don’t think he recognized me thankfully. Then there’s the general, Dream, Dream is more respected than Techno, but Technoblade can certainly hold his own in a fight. Then there’s the seven.” 

Skeppy tilted his head slightly as he listened, curiosity for once keeping his mouth shut as Bad continued. 

“The seven are pretty scattered, and over various areas, it's pretty rare for all of us to be in the same place. B-before my trial I was part of it. There was also a man named Philza, Fundy, George, and Sap that I know of. One of the other’s was someone named Xisuma, but he passed away a few years back, I don’t know who replaced him.”

Tubbo winced slightly, “There. . .may be more changes soon too.” 

Everyone seemed just as confused and startled by this information as Bad was, so Finn asked confused, “What do you mean?”

“Tommy isn’t here because. . .because he’s home with Wilbur.” 

Finn rolled his eyes but was cut off before he could make some sarcastic remark, “Wilbur did something stupid, and he broke laws set by the Twelve. Both of them were pretty hurt, Tommy was in the hospital on Thursday, which is why he wasn’t with me. Wilbur I’ve not had a chance to speak with, but he was pretty banged up, and. . .” Tubbo paused. 

“And what?” Eret asked carefully. 

“And something, something happened, and Wilbur was burned by salts, Tommy said in the Deltas. He’s blind.” 

Skeppy didn’t know Wilbur very well, but he couldn’t help but feel pity for the other, despite this new information, he felt conflicted, but he couldn’t imagine how awful that would be, so they let the topic drop. Bad finally asked the bingo question. 

“So how did you guys know? Know who I was?” 

Finn and Tubbo exchanged glances, before the latter answered, “Technoblade spoke with us.” 

Eret, who had just put a glass of water to his mouth choked, glowing eyes widening, “W-what?!” He spluttered. 

Tubbo put his hands up, “Techno has been a friend for a long time, I didn’t think. ..I guess I put too much blind faith in someone who’s known to cause trouble just for the sake of it.” 

Fundy muttered something under his breath that even though Skeppy could hear it, he had no idea what he said, although he’d started to recognize the language, it was Bad’s native tongue, Galactic. Eret seemed like he was going to say something before Bad gave a soft smile putting a hand out and tapping the table for the other’s attention. 

“It’s okay, I - I know they’re still wanting me taken back to them, I promise I’m not upset or anything Tubbo, or you Finn.”

The rest of the meal went alright. Things settled down as they spoke amongst one another, and the situation seemed to have settled down significantly, soon the more casual atmosphere that he was far more used to settled over the group, and light jokes started making their way into the conversation. 

Skeppy started the engine of the car as the two of them began to leave, once again it was just them, nobody would hear them, nobody would know if he just said something, anything. He pursed his lips trying to fight off his thoughts when he was interrupted as Bad asked. 

“What does. . what does bisexual mean?” He asked timidly as they pulled into the road, “Fundy made a joke about Eret being a bicon, and you said it meant he was bisexual. . ..what is that?” 

A part of him was surprised he didn’t know what it meant, but at the same time it made sense, he shrugged, “It just means Eret likes both boys and girls.” 

“Thats. ..is it okay?” 

He glanced sideways briefly, and instead of concern or something along those lines, it was disbelief and a faint smile on the boy’s face. So he smiled a little and answered, “Of course it is, some people even nowadays don’t think so, but they’re the ones with sticks up their ass.” 

Bad gave him a stern look, but didn’t correct his language for once, instead his face quickly softened and he looked back out the window, “I. . .that’s nice.” 

“What made you ask?” 

“Me asking what it means?” 

“No, if it was okay.”

“Oh. . “ Bad was quiet for a long moment, green eyes glistening and a part of his heart broke seeing the other’s eyes water with tears that threatened to spill, “You asked me how I died once remember?” 

Skeppy paused, it had been brought up only a few times, but he had quickly dropped the subject after he seemed genuinely upset by it, and part of him wanted to steer the conversation back to something happier, he hated seeing Bad like this. 

“Yeah but you. . .don’t have to tell me.” 

(CW Suicide mention here)

Bad shook his head, “No no, it’s okay. I want to tell you.” The demon took a deep breath, “I drowned, in a river when I was 21, it was something I struggled with for years.” 

Skeppy wanted to ask, but had a feeling it would be answered regardless. 

“I fell in love with a boy, I cared so much for him, we were best friends, it was him, me and my childhood friend Atticus. I was always told it was wrong, that it was evil. . .but I still couldn’t stop it. I - I loved him.” Bad began to stumble on his words, and stammering, “I told him, I - I don't, don’t know why I did, what I wanted, I- I just - I wanted closure I guess. I was seventeen at the time. He turned it on me, he scorned, and - and screamed and -” Bad choked slightly, so Skeppy gave him a moment to compose himself, “Everyone knew after that, how . .evil I was. I was kicked out, I was homeless, coinless, and Atticus moved shortly after. I lost everything, so when for the second time I was rejected, I just. ..I was selfish.” Tears were falling down his cheeks so Skeppy pulled off to the side of the road, putting the car in park as he turned to Halo as he finished his heart wrenching story, “So I went to the river, and I jumped. I couldn’t bring myself to take in air, I’ve been told some people understand how they could’ve fixed things, that it wasn’t worth it, ending it. . but - but - I . . it was just cold. Cold and wet, and I still wanted it.” 

(CW over)

Skeppy unclipped his seat belt and pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly and warmly as Bad cried into his shoulder. Quiet muffled sobs shook his shoulders as he clung desperately to Skeppy, his arms holding him back just as tightly and warmly, seeking, needing that comfort. He didn’t have words, even if he did, he didn’t think the moment was right for it, so instead he started rubbing soothing circles on his back, just trying to comfort the other. After several minutes his sobs transitioned to quiet sniffles, and he slowly pulled away looking down at his dark hands. 

“So when you said… when you said you loved me, I thought -” Halo took a breath, “How did you really mean it? Please, just tell me, be honest.” 

His heart skipped a few beats and jumped into his throat, any clever remark, or joke to diffuse the situation died in his mouth, he stammered wordlessly for several minutes as he searched for an answer. Halo’s soft eyes looked at him pleadingly, those beautiful emeralds begging with him, for full honesty. He sucked in a breath. 

“I love you Halo, like,  _ really _ love you. I wanted to tell you, I really did, but in my own time. I didn’t want to scare you, I didn’t want you to think I was weird, I mean a human falling for a demon is just.. . crazy talk, not in a bad way, but I see you and I just, it’s like I don’t know what to do with myself,” He wasn’t really thinking, just letting the word vomit in his brain guide him, “And when I saw you that one time when you were asleep in my room, you were so peaceful, and I just - I wanted to kiss you. You ignite this burning heat and - and i’m afraid, I’m afraid it’ll melt all of this.” 

Bad was silent for several moments, and he suddenly began to backpedal in his brain, here Halo was confessing how his relationships had always been shit, and he was trying to lure him into another one. But before he could say anything, Bad spoke softly, so quietly, so gingerly, as if the air was glass, and his words were careful weights that might just shatter everything if he wasn’t careful. 

“Me too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POOOGGGGGG 10K 10K!!!  
> Thank you guys so so much for all your support! Thank you seriously so so so much <3   
> Anyways I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took so long to come out.


	17. Oh No

Bad was a bit shocked with his own words he’d just let himself say. Their conversation bounced around in his head, and rattled his heart in his chest as he murmured his answer softly. He could barely believe what was happening in the moment, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. He didn’t want to lose Skeppy, not again, not now. Never again, not if he had a say in it at least. He pulled Skeppy close in for another hug this time, nuzzling into his shoulder, and he let his eyes close as he took a breath before continuing. 

“I wanted to tell you, but I’ve been scared too.” He admitted softly. 

The tanned boy began to pet his hair lightly, resting his head against the demon’s as he was quiet for a long time, before chuckling quietly, “Seems were both disasters with feelings.” 

He couldn’t help the quiet giggle and nodded a little, “Yeah, yeah we both are.” 

They finally separated from the hug, and Skeppy restarted the engine after both of them were buckled and pulled back out onto the road, and as he got up to speed, the thick cloud covering above them finally started to release its torrent, giving a gentle soothing white noise to the car and radio which sang softly from the old speakers. It seemed as if the universe was determined to play with both of their heartstrings as Halo listened to the gentle lyrics that floated from the machine. 

_ Oh, don't leave me here alone _

_ Don't tell me that we've grown _

_ For having loved a little while _

_ Oh, I don't wanna be alone _

_ I wanna find a home _

_ And I wanna share it with you _

The soft melody seemed to echo his own emotions, and he closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window, listening to the soft music, and the pattering of rain as they drove back home. Home, it felt a bit odd to think of the human’s apartment as home, and yet it felt so fitting, so much better. He listened as a second voice joined the music, cracking an eye open to see Skeppy looking out over the road, and singing with the music. 

_ Hello, my old heart _

_ How have you been? _

His ear flicked as he listened, it was a sweet song, the two voices, with Skeppy’s created a soothing harmony, and a comforting sound. The song, although a bit melancholic in nature and tune, also had a sense of belonging and warmth behind it. 

_ How is it being locked away? _

_ Don't you worry, in there you're safe. _

He smiled slightly, as he let his eyes close again as he listened, and started to doze in the car. Next thing he knew, the engine to the small car was being shut off, and the radio fizzled out as the downpour echoed off the metallic roof of the vehicle. He yawned and arched his back, stretching, before shaking the sleepiness away the best he could. The world around them was soaked and gray. A dreary sight, but in Halo’s eyes it was absolutely beautiful. He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop loving rainstorms, he’d been afraid of rivers and water after his death for so long, but rain? Rain was different, it was safe, it was natural, and it was indifferent. Skeppy was running for the awning of the building as the two exited the car, whereas Bad took his time, holding his hands out to the rain. 

The clear cool drops plopped down on him and his dark jacket, drenching him, his hair, and his clothes, yet he grinned his little fanged smile nonetheless. Despite the chill of the fall wind, he was warm and happy. Skeppy was calling him over, waving for Bad to join him under the awning. He padded his way over, if he wasn’t in his human looks at the moment, his tail would undoubtedly be wagging behind him. 

As the pair stood in the entry hall of the building, one mostly dry, and the other soaking wet, the tanned human giggled. Bad was soaked head to toe in rainwater. Water dripped from his hair, nose, and eyelashes. Clinging to his clothing and his glasses. Bad shook his hair a bit with a laugh as little wet droplets were flung off of him. Bad got himself mostly dry (which really just meant when he walked he wasn’t causing puddles) the two were standing in the lobby, waiting for the elevator when a voice caused both of them to stop. 

“Darryl Noveschosch.” Bad whipped around hearing his full birth name, bristling. There were only a handful of people who would know that name. 

A tall man was standing mere feet away from them, he was blond, and his shaggy shoulder length hair was tucked inside of a bright green hoodie that the boy was wearing. His eyes were a rich sickly green, although one was pale and faded, and made Bad freeze where he was standing. The seeming stranger was unarmed, but he was terrifying nonetheless. 

His skin was pale, and mottled with freckles, a pair of long scars ran across his face, above his left eye, and across his nose, stopping on his cheek. As well as a smaller one that ran up his lip from his chin. He frowned and Skeppy whispered at his side. 

“Who is he talking to?” 

Bad couldn’t even move his gaze, “. . .He’s talking to me.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long gap in uploads! I've been really busy, anyways I know this one is short but I've got fun plans now :) Also to those of you who basically said "this is too wholesome for too long what are you doing?" Are in for a treat :)


	18. Please Do Make A Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just think I deserve,  
> a little bit of what I earned.  
> I'm not gonna make another scene

Skeppy frowned as he looked to the stranger who was blocking the way out, and was approaching the two boys casually. Just the man’s presence was unnerving, and his face was so even, so calm, but he had an aura of danger. At Bad’s words, he shifted to be standing in front of his demon friend, putting himself protectively in front of the other. He glared upward to the blond, who was almost a foot and a bit taller. 

“Who are you?” He glared upwards. 

The stranger cocked his head sideways, before laughing. It was quiet and he grinned as he looked down at Skeppy, before he answered, “You may call me Dream.” 

Bad was silent, and as Skeppy put an arm out slightly to block Dream from grabbing the boy behind him, he could feel the other trembling. Although he was clearly trying to hide it as he looked away from Dream and towards the ground. 

Dream frowned slightly, “Look Zachary, we can do this the easy way, or you can make things messy, it’s your choice.” 

It all started to click together, several weeks ago Bad had said he was on the run, as hard as it was to imagine, he was a fugitive. Although Skeppy couldn’t possibly imagine his taller demon friend being a wanted man, and yet he was. He didn’t budge though. 

“Leave us alone! He’s done nothing!” Skeppy retorted, causing Dream to smile. 

The man had needle-like fangs that his curled lips revealed, unlike Halo who only had the single pair, this man’s mouth looked like an animal’s. He was truly looking straight into the maw of a lion, and challenging him. Dream sneered and his poisonous gaze flicked between the tan human, and the demon he was shielding. 

“Nothing?” He paused and began to walk around them, a vulture circling its prey, “Is that what he’s told you?” 

Skeppy was confused, and shifted to still be a barricade between the two demons, but didn’t interrupt. 

“Nothing at all.” Dream purred shaking his head, “Where shall we start Halo? Hm? How about Atticus? His suicide was your fault, or should we go with the itemized list?” 

Bad flinched at the name, and Skeppy frowned confused as Dream continued. 

“You repeatedly abandoned your post, you actively refused summons, refused to participate as a judge of the Council against criminals, refused assignments as a guardian, been involved with humans, and that’s just the early stuff isn’t it? You let Xiyra die, you almost let DeVries continue now didn’t you? Do you remember that? How about George and Wilbur?” Dream laughed a little as he paced around them, leering down at the two, relishing in their inability to flee, “Maybe we should move more recent? Perhaps then you’re little  _ pet _ here will understand the truth. You meddled in his affairs after all. You abandoned him as a guardian in your early years, you left him in a poor environment, you  _ killed _ in an attempt to help and then fled like a coward.” 

Skeppy’s brow furrowed as he turned to look at Bad who looked like he was praying for the ground to swallow him up and vanish forever, “What is he talking about Bad?” 

Dream barked a laugh, “He doesn’t know? Isn’t that rich! Tell him Halo.” 

A game of cat and mouse, and Skeppy had a feeling he wouldn’t win this battle of information. Bad lowered his gaze, his eyes shifting to a soft milky white as he looked away. 

“What is he talking about?” He pushed again. 

“I’m talking about your father Zak.”

“What?” 

“Your father didn’t die in an accident, there were no cars at all.” Dream cooed as he stepped closer, “No, he was murdered, by the one you’re trying to defend. He claims he cares about you, but he’s a fucking liar.” 

He didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want to listen anymore, “Stop it! He’s not a murderer, and he’s my friend! I care about him! And if you want him then you’re going to have to go through me.” The boy didn’t believe a single word coming from the strange disguised demon. 

Dream shrugged, and summoned a large black axe, it was single sided, almost like an executioner’s weapon, sharp and wicked. He moved to step back, glancing around to the others in the lobby, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. It was almost like the three of them weren’t there at all. 

“Help! Someone!” He shouted backing up with Halo behind him. 

Dream advanced, a pale gloved hand gripping the handle of the weapon. His body shifted, “They can’t hear you, they don’t know any of us are here.” 

Dream now loomed in front of him, sharp white claws gripped the handle, and extended from his hands, pearl white scales ran along the back of his fingers and up his wrists, as well as several that dotted the sides of his neck and cheeks. His ears were pointed, and a pair of white horns curled back like a crown, the tips ending in a neon green color. A white scaled tail lashed behind him as the predator advanced. Long sharp spines edging it like a porcupine’s quills. For every three steps Skeppy took, Dream took four, closing the gap between them. 

“Move.” He snarled, his eyes black and green now, the irises glowing white. 

He squared his shoulders, despite his trembling fears, “No, you - you’ll have to get through me if you want him.”

Dream shook his head, nose wrinkling in disgust, “You defend the boy who murdered your father, even after being told this?” 

“You’re lying!” 

Dream grinned a little, it was too wide on the man’s face, “Oh? And what benefit do I have for lying to you hm?” 

Bad spoke for the first time in a while behind him, “Skeppy I - I wanted to tell you.” 

He turned now facing Halo in disbelief, _how much. . .how long had Halo lied to him? How much of what he said was a lie? Did he even care at all? Or was that a lie as well? Finn had been right, Finn was right, he should’ve -_

His train of thought was jerked to an abrupt halt as his hoodie was seized and he was dragged backwards, his feet being kicked out from underneath him as he collapsed, easily lifted by Dream. He thrashed trying to free himself from the man, but a cold blade to his throat made him still. 

“Pathetic.” He spat shaking his head, and Skeppy’s neck was clawed as his other hand grabbed the back of it, he could feel the warmth of fresh blood being drawn from where the claws were too deep. 

Dream looked back over to Halo who was freaking out, but before anyone could move, before anyone could do or stop anything, Dream vanished, with Skeppy. 

Bad stared at where Dream vanished into a haze of white and green magic. Skeppy was gone too, there was no sign of either of them, not even the remaining wisps of magic gave any clue that there had been people there just moments prior. Hot tears pricked his eyes as he looked around, surely someone,  _ anyone _ , had just seen that? Although looking around, even in the mostly empty lobby, nobody gave him a side glance, or even so much as a look. Not a single one of them had just witnessed the kidnapping. 

He was shaking violently as he hugged himself, and felt tears start to fall down his face, hot and bitter. Dream had just taken Skeppy, he’d just taken the first person who’d truly cared about him in a long time. He wanted to crumple and sob where he stood, but he couldn’t. He knew what Dream was doing, he’d seen it done to others in the past. No matter how many times he tried, he wasn’t able to stop it. Now he was the subject. 

He forced himself forward and back out to Skeppy’s car, looking around for something to contact anyone, anyone at all. Although there was nothing, nobody knew where Skeppy was, nobody knew what had just happened, and nobody else was going to help. He swallowed thickly as he straightened, leaning on the car, getting drenched by the thunderstorm that raged above him. 

Bad stared down at his own hands, lost in thought, water dripped into his eyes from time to time, and the thing he’d found comforting just moments prior seemed to be attempting to mock him in a twisted irony. His clothes were freezing cold, and clung to him, seeping the shivering temperatures into his core. He felt so lost. 

But one thing was for certain. 

He needed to get Skeppy back safely, **no matter what it took. **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOOO ANGST MOFO's   
> Anyways on a more serious note: Thank you guys so so very much for the 12k hits! You guys are all so amazing, and I adore everyone's comments, and I love getting to see them. Thank you so much!


	19. Prison Bars

Skeppy writhed in the taller man’s hold. A pale clawed hand was clamped over his mouth muffling his cries as he looked around and panicked in the apartment lobby. His legs were kicking that taller demon’s shins, and his hands were fruitlessly grabbing at his captor’s arms. He watched helplessly, shouting against the palm on his mouth, as the world around them bled away into thick sickly greens, whites and blacks. He fought harder as his head started to spin, and his consciousness faded. Although it was all for not as Dream just dug his claws into him and held him tighter, causing tears to threaten to spill. 

When he blinked again, as he stopped feeling sick, and like everything was spinning, the first thing he noticed was the overbearing heat on his skin. He breathed hard, oxygen refusing to enter his lungs as the ground swayed beneath him as he looked up. Dark bricks blended into a hazy mess, and waves of heat only yards away caused the world to sway methodically. Skeppy was barely able to sit up before a pale clawed hand snagged his arm, and dragged him to his feet. 

His knees were weak, and threatened to collapse beneath him before he could even get his feet under him. The heat around him was like a stifling blanket, and it made him sweat, and his head pound harder. He reached a hand to rub his eyes, trying to get his bearings when another hand snagged his wrist. 

He looked up at the creature holding him, and stifled a scream. There was a tall beast that stood above him, he looked close to humans, but just not enough. The pale skin was porcelain white, and dark sunken eyes stared back at him. Two green eyes staring back at him as he tried to figure out the opponent holding him. Nails, no claws, dug into his arms as he was dragged and forced to his feet. 

His vision was still a little blurred, and his throat felt dry and made swallowing hard as he studied his new surroundings. Walls closed in around him, one in front of him was dark brick, chips and cracks spiraling up them, a heavy iron door set in the center of it. The other walls he could see were cold black metal, he didn’t recognize the material, it certainly wasn’t any alloy he’d seen on the surface, in fact it probably wasn’t even an alloy humans had ever seen. 

“Look, it's awake.” A grating voice spat at him as he was released, the voice belonged to the man above him. 

His knees buckled, but thankfully instead of a hard floor, it was a slightly less hard blanket that met his fall. His body was starting to adjust to the sweltering heat and strange environment. He’d grown up in a desert, but even this heat was overbearing. Slowly Skeppy forced himself into a sitting position. 

“Why… why are you doing this?” He rasped looking up at the beast. 

Sitting, Dream was even larger and intimidating, his lanky tall white form had been much taller than Skeppy standing, and even more so now that he was sitting. Dream knelt, balancing on the claws of his feet, and rested his hands on his knees, grinning. 

His smile was too wide for his face, it seemed just slightly too large, too sharp. In the corner of his eye he saw movement, and as he turned, a pale spiked tail tip flicked idly. Skeppy turned his attention back to the deep inset eyes that seemed to bore through his soul. 

Dream cooed softly, “Oh Zachary, this has nothing to do with you.” 

“Then why - “

“You’re just another pawn in this game.” He grinned, a quiet laugh coming from him, “And now its checkmate.” 

He frowned not understanding the analogy, but he didn’t like being called a pawn, “I - I’m not… I’m not a pawn.” He spoke softly. 

Dream sighed and stood, he had a pair of twisted horns that curved along his hairline, his skin wasn’t white, but instead faded to white at his elbows and knees down, and white scales flecked his cheeks and neck. 

“Zack - “ 

“Skeppy.” 

Dream rolled his eyes, “ _ Skeppy _ , you are just a human, you don’t have a say in this.” 

“Well why not?” 

“Because you don’t!” Dream spat at him. “Now, Halo in this will have two choices, he can either pick you, or he can face the jury and justice for his accusations.” 

“What has he done?! He’s a good person!” 

“Exactly, he’s actively avoided his duties as a demon, he is a deviant, he isn’t even a demon. He shouldn’t have ever been one!” Dream turned on his heels, anger edging his voice, “He has affected all of us, he’s forced his way onto the council, and disrupted hundreds of years of tradition.” 

“Why is that a bad thing?” Skeppy retorted, leveling a glare with the demon. 

“I have no grievance with him specifically, but he has caused over 30 years of disagreements. It’s time to put an end to this.” 

“So why take me? I- I’m just a guy.” 

Dream grinned, “He needs to answer for the accusations laid at his feet, and then he can choose to either apologize or he can lay down his life.” 

“Why?” Skeppy moved to stand, but stumbled, and caught himself last minute, sickness bubbling again, “He’s done nothing wrong! He shouldn’t need to apologize for being a good person!” 

Dream snarled and kicked his side, causing a white pain to flare, and sent him spluttering as he tried to regain the air that had just been stolen from him. 

“You don’t even know half of what you’re getting into.” He retorted looking down at Skeppy with a glower, “You have no say in this, and the reason I took you is because he cares about you. He’s  _ attached _ to you. Even after having his guardian duties revoked from you from what he did, he still managed to crawl back and find himself in your hands.” 

“I didn’t choose that!” 

“I don’t give a fuck!” Dream’s harsh tone made him recoil, “I don’t give a fuck about you, or him. I’m just taking care of my fucking job to keep the people I actually care about safe!” 

Skeppy sat up, still gasping slightly, “But.. why? If you’re being threatened why not go against the people threatening you?” 

“First its not that easy, and second,” Dream hesitated, and shook his head, “Secondly, the one person I care about isn’t involved in my job, so it doesn’t matter what I do.” 

Skeppy wanted to argue, he wanted to continue speaking with Dream, but the demon strode out of the cell he was being kept in, and slammed the iron door behind him. Skeppy pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself as he tried to mull over his new predicament. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd give you some half assed excuse for my disappearance, but I don't have one :/ Anyways sorry for the short chapter, next one is going to be fun though! But hey I'm alive, and dealin with stuff, so hopefully updates will be coming back :) 
> 
> Also!!! POG 15k!!! Thank you guys so so much!
> 
> Also can you tell what songs I listened to this whilst writing it? lmao


	20. Drunk on Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning ⚠️⚠️  
> Gore the start and end are highlighted in bold so you can skip it without missing much story wise

_Some years ago_

When Bad had been told he'd be traveling to the surface, and being ordained as a Guardian he had been absolutely ecstatic. He would be able to help someone! Protect them from the cruelest of beings and punishments. The month between when he first received the news, and when he was actually given an assignment had felt agonizingly long. He had lived for around 200 years and yet that was certainly the longest month ever.

When he had gotten the case file, he'd been unable to sit still. Then it was a blur of memories from when he was preparing, and to when he first saw his kid. 

Zachary Ahmed was his name, he had been assigned to the younger boy, and he'd watched from the shadows. An invisible protector over the other. At first, he couldn't fathom why this one had been marked as a difficult assignment. Why so many had passed it on by. He seemed happy, his mother, Millie, was a kind soul, but this idealistic environment was shattered within a few hours.

The smell of alcohol had hit him first. It was a wretched and nauseating level of drunkenness that only severe drunkards could hope you achieve. His form was misty and invisible in the shadows. But his non existent nose wrinkled as he recoiled from the scent. 

The next thing the could clearly remember was the abuse. Humans may have called Halo a monster, but that man was the very essence of evil. Repeatedly bringing his hand down upon the young boy until his nose was bloodied, or he'd knocked a tooth out. Sometimes Zak would lay limply on the floor just to stop the attacks.

It made his heart twist and clench. So, breaking too many rules to count, he'd step in from time to time. One night, he still distinctly remembered, picking up the malnourished injured boy. Cradling him like a mother with her infant until Zak slipped into sleep. He cared so much for the one he needed to protect. So, when that bastard had attacked Zak, breaking his arm, leaving him unconscious, and then moved to his wife. It truly was the straw that broke the camels back. 

Bad wasn't violent by nature. He hated harming others most of the time. It took a lot to piss him off, and even more for him to take malevolent action. It was why he always failed, and also why he was respected by a few and far between. Yet that night something snapped. Some deep rooted instinct surged upward and like a dam with too many cracks to count, he'd broken. As soon as the so-called Father stepped outside, Bad had attacked him. 

It was hazy, even in his fury, his magic fueled, hatred induced rage, he couldn't let the man suffer. Much like Dr. Bright many years ago, he'd died upon the first blow, and once again he'd been unable to control himself, his body moving of it's own accord as it repeatedly brought the axe down on the body. 

It was a blur after that. Sirens and lights spooked him, reality set in and his heart sank like a lead weight in his gut. Bad ran, without direction, nor thought. He'd abandoned his post just like every other time he'd hurt someone. He couldn't confront his wrongdoings. He didn't face the consequences, at least not immediately.

Getting back into the Nether, courts were fast and angry. Revoking his guardian status, punishing him, trying to force him into obedience. They had two final actions that finally made him do what he was best at. Running.

First, the Council made him visit the Light Bounds. The place where the veil between demons and "angels" was thinnest. They had forced him to witness an execution, overseen by the Co-Council Wilbur. That beast was still stained in his mind.

For being an angel, they were terrifying.

He'd watched, petrified as it crawled over the landscape. Effortlessly bringing itself around trees and down the hill. It's body faintly may have resembled human once upon a time, but now it's sunken skin, gaunt silhouette, and unnaturally long limbs were a far cry from human. 

He'd been forced you watch as it unfurled itself to be impossibly large, much bigger than Bad, who in his true form stood a little shy of 10 feet tall. The Lights joints had clicked and cracked with every motion. It's face was smooth and featureless, deep glowing gashes where and expression may have once been, a crown of horns jutted out from it's skull. Odd and unnatural angles all supporting the glowing halo that looked like it was made of barbed wire turned into pure light. The body was nothing but skin and bones. Overstretched and sallowed skin clung to a rib cage that was several bones too many, and it's stomach was impossibly shrunken. Hips jutting out sharply as it crawled unnaturally to the poor victim. It's heart - more like a glowing core shuddered as it breathed, how or where it breathed from was anyone's guess.

Clearly they were capable of being bipedal, clawed feet digging into the blue and silver dirt. Fingers too long and knobbly for it's hand flexed as it circled the imprisoned demon, who was tied to a tree. Eyes flicked wildly from where they lay in it's neck, unfocused and yet focused on everything at once. Moving independently from it's rotten brain. 

In a loud, terrifying scream that sounded like radio static, a terrified wail, and the shrieking of dying animals all at one, it's wings flared out. White feathers bristling as eyes dotted were downy feathers may have once been. 

**(Graphic Content Warning - Gore)**

Bad wanted to turn away, he really, really wanted to. The creature alone was enough to petrify him, but his body would not obey. His muscles frozen in stasis as he looked on in horror. The Lights face split open down the center, as if someone has stuck the left and right side together as it shrieked again. 

It lunged forward as it began to eat the suffering demon. Thousands of needle sharp teeth tore into flesh and bone, the sounds of meat tearing and bones breaking was deafening. The tied demon begged, pleading for his life, writhing and fighting his binds as he was eaten alive. Until he was nothing more than slick crimson on wood and a few scraps of entrails.

**(End Of Content Warning)**

Bad didn't know how long the poor guy suffered there, but the Light retreated once it had finished it's meal. He could hear the blood pounding in his own ears, deafening the voices around him for hours as his brain struggled to process what he'd just witnessed. 

The second leads to the present day, of a human he had refused to 'take care of' as they had put it. Bad mulled over these thoughts as he sat in Skeppy's apartment. He had very few friends from the Nether who could possibly help, and he wasn't willing to drag others into this either. 

He had remembered where the spare key was, and let himself into the small home, it felt cold and dark without the human here. He'd also managed to find Skep's phone, charging on his nightstand. 

The only other option he could think of wasn't a pretty one, but it was the only one he had. So he unlocked the phone with some struggle (even without a password, technology was not his strong suit) and called the first person he knew. 

A state away, Johnathan's phone rang with a call from his grandson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy! I wanna start with a huge huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support. It blows me away every single time. I and still shocked I get over 100 reads on my small shit. We are so so close to 1k kudos!!! Which is huge! We're making it to the big leagues baby!!!!! 
> 
> Anyways enough of me gushing my love for y'all, got any theories? Ideas? (Idk why people keep thinking Dr. Bright was Skep's dad lmao his dad is Jebediah)

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is wondering, this isn't going to be a very religious based demon au as I'm not comfortable writing that. So while "demon" is a good descriptor, they aren't actual 'demons' as defined by any branch of catholicism or any other religion


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